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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


ob..^    AoAyXy. 


KEUNION 


OF   THE 


FREE  SOILEES  OF  1848-1852 


AT  THE  PARKER  HOUSE, 


BOSTON,   MASSACHUSETTS, 


June  28,  1888. 


CAMBRIDGE: 

JOHN, WILSON    AND    SON. 

Hnibcrsitg  ^mss. 

1888. 


REUNION 


OF   THE 


FREE  SOILERS  OF  1848-1852 


AT   THE   PARKER   HOUSE, 


BOSTON,    MASSACHUSETTS, 


June  28,  1888. 


CAMBRIDGE: 
JOHN     WILSON     AND     SON. 

1888. 


(  I 


II 


(  (    iHiPi. 


*IU^l  Kit       y    J 


•-  •  ^ .-.  # 


CONTENTS. 


•    •  .     :    .   .-  PAGE 

CiRCULAK  OF  Invitation     .     T     " y 

List  of  Pkrsoxs  Presknt 10 

Dinner 13 

Addrkss  of  Hon.  Edward  L.  Pierce 14 

"     Hon.  Samuel  E.  Sewall 22 

"     Col.  Thomas  W.  Higgixson 24 

"     Hon.  Francis  W.  Bird 28 

"         "     Hon.  Stephen  H.  Phillips       30 

"     Geu.  John  L.  Swift 34 

"     Edward  Atkinson,  Esq 38 

"     Hon.  John  Winslow  ...          43 

"     Col.  W.  S.  B.  Hopkins 51 

"         "     Hon.  Horace  E.  Smith 53 

"     John  C.  Wyman,  Esq 56 

"         "     Thomas  Drew,  Esq 60 

"         "     Henry  H.  Chamberlain,  Esq 62 

Appointment  of  Committee  of  Publication 64 

APPENDIX. 

Remarks  of  Caleb  A.  Wall 65 

•'          "    Hon.  Milton  M.  Fisher 70 

Letter  from  Dr.  Henry  I.  Bowditch                             ...  72 

"         "      John  G.  Whittier 72 

*'         "■      lion.  George  F.  Hoar  .  73 

"      Judge  E.  R.  Hoar 73 

Partial  List  of  the  Free  Boilers  of  1818-1852    ....  74 

Reunion  of  the  Free  Soilers  of  Franklin  County      .     .  S4 


REUNION 


OF    THE 


FREE    SOILERS    OF    1848-1852, 


Who  reverenced  his  conscience  as  his  king. 
Whose  glory  teas  redressing  human  wrong. 

Tennyson. 


Ah,  well !— The  world  is  discreet; 

There  are  plenti/  to  pause  and  wait; 
But  here  was  a  man  icho  set  his  /eet 

Sometimes  in  advance  of  fate,  — 

Plucked  off  the  old  bark  when  the  inner 

Was  slow  to  renew  it, 
And  put  to  the  Lord's  ivork  the  sinner 

When  saints  Jailed  to  do  it. 

Never  rode  to  the  icrong's  redressing 

A  ivorthier  paladin  : 
Shall  he  not  hear  the  bles.nng, 

"  Good  and  faithful,  enter  in!" 

WlIITTIEF.. 


Every  age  on  him  who  .ftrays 
From  its  broad  and  beaten  ways. 
Pours  its  sevenfold  vial. 

Happy  he  v^hose  inward  ear 
Angel  comfortings  can  hear 

O'er  the  rabble's  laughter; 
And  while  FJatred's  fagots  burn, 
Glimpses  through  the  smoke  discern 

Of   the  good  hereafter. 

Knowing  this,  that  never  yet 
Share  of    Truth  was  vainly  set 

In  the  world's  wide  fallow  ; 
After  hands  shall  sow  the  seed. 
After  hands  from  hili  and  mead 

Reap  the  harvests  yellow. 

WiriTTTKK. 


FREE  SOIL  REUNION  AT  BOSTON. 


'  I  "HE  Fortieth  Anniversary  of  the  first  State 
-*-  Convention  of  the  Free  Soilers  of  Massachu- 
setts occLirrmg  on  the  28th  of  June  of  the  present 
year,  it  was  decided  by  some  of  the  surviving  mem- 
bers of  that  organization  to  call  together  as  many  of 
the  representative  men  of  that  famous  party  still 
living  as  could  be  conveniently  provided  for  at  a 
Boston  hotel ;  and  with  this  view  the  following  circular 
was  sent  to  about  three  hundred  of  the  Free  Soilers 
in  the  State,  whose  addresses  could  be  obtained : 

FREE    BOILERS  OF   MASSACHUSETTS. 

1848-1852. 

The  Fortieth  Anniversary  of  the  meeting  of  the  Convention  at 
"Worcester  which  formed  the  Free  Soil  Party  of  Massachusetts,  will 
be  commemorated  by  the  survivors  of  the  party  by  a  dinner  at  Young's 
Hotel,  in  Boston,  on 

Thursday,  June  28,  next, 

at  1  P.M.     A  room  will  be  open  at  11  a.m.  of  that  day,  to  give  guests 
an  opportunity  for  friendly  meeting  and  conversation. 

You,  as  one  of  the  survivors  of  that  noble  and  historical  party,  are 
invited  to  participate  in  the  occasion.  The  price  of  tickets  will  be 
Three  Dollars  ;  and  as  the  number  is  limited,  preference  will  be  given 
to  those  who  first  accept.  i*lease  communicate,  on  or  before  June  20, 
your  reply  to  Henry  O.  Ilildreth,  Room  12,  82  Devonshire  Street, 
Boston,  who  will  supply  the  tickets. 

William  Claflin.  Francis  W.  Bird. 

T.  W.  HiGGixsoN.  Anix  Thayer. 

Eben  F.  Stoxe.  Edward  L.  Pierce. 
Boston,  June  5,  1888. 


10  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT   BOSTON. 

In  response  to  this  invitation,  the  following  named 
gentlemen  (one   hundred  and   fourteen  in  number) 

assembled  at  the  Parker  House  ^  on  Thursday,  June 

28,  1888:  — 

Robert  Adams Fall  River. 

Daniel  W.  Allen Lynn. 

Stephen  M.  Allen Duxbury. 

Edward  Atkinson Boston. 

John  Backup Roxbury. 

Isaac  H.  Bailey 'New  York  City. 

George  M.  Baker Marshfield. 

John  X.  Barbour Cambridge. 

Samuel  D.  Bardwell Shelburne  Falls. 

Charles  T.  Barry Boston. 

David  B.  Bartlett Lowell. 

WiNSLOw  Battles Randolph. 

Francis  W.  Bird Walpole. 

Matthew  Bolles West  Roxbury. 

John  Botume Boston. 

Thomas  T.  Bouve' Boston. 

Albert  G.  Browne Boston. 

Samuel  M.  Bubier Lynn. 

Thomas  F.  Burgess Lowell. 

Jonathan  Butterfield Dorchester. 

James  S.  Campbell Newton. 

JosiAH  H.  Carter Dorchester. 

George  IST.  Cate Marlborough. 

Henry  H.  Chamberlain Worcester. 

Asaph  Churchill Dorchester. 

Charles  M.  S.  Churchill IVIilton. 

Arthur  B.  Claflin Newton. 

Lucius  Clapp Stoughton. 

Asa  Clement Dracut. 

James  B.  Collingwood Plymouth. 

1  The  place  of  meeting  was  changed  from  Young's  Hotel  to  the  Parker 
House  in  order  to  secure  a  larger  dining-hall. 


NAMES    OF    GENTLEMEN    PRESENT.  11 

Joshua  E.  Crane Bridge  water. 

Isaac  H.  Gushing Hingham. 

Charles  G.  Davis Plymouth. 

KoBERT  T.  Davis Fall  Eiver. 

Thomas  Drew Kewton. 

George  E.  Eaton ISTeedham. 

Charles  Endicott .  Canton. 

William  Exdicott,  Jr Boston. 

Aloxzo  H.  Evans Everett. 

John  S.  Farlow Newton. 

Milton  M.  Fisher Medway. 

Hiram  M.  French Boston. 

Thomas  Gaffield Boston. 

Cyrus  Gale Northborough. 

John  Girdler Beverly. 

Daniel  W.  Gooch Melrose. 

Henry  Guild Boston, 

Christopher  A.  Hack Taunton. 

James  G.  Hartshorn Walpole. 

Joseph  K.  Hayes Cambridge. 

John  C.  Haynes Boston. 

Charles  A.  Hewins West  Roxbury. 

Thomas  W.  Higginson Cambridge. 

Henry  0.  Hildreth Dedham. 

iM^iLO  Hildreth Xorthborough. 

Eli  W.  Holbrook West  Boylston. 

Aaron  Hook Charlestown. 

W^iLLiAM  S.  B.  Hopkins Worcester. 

Joseph  A.  Howland Worcester. 

Clarke  Jillson Worcester. 

Peter  Johnson Lynn. 

William  H.  S.  Jordan Boston. 

Martin  P.  Kennard      .......  Brookline. 

Franklin  King Dorchester. 

Edward  W.  Kinsley Boston. 

Chauncy  L.  Knapp Lowell. 

John  Kneeland Roxbury. 

Seth  iVlANN Randolph. 


12        FREE  SOIL  REUNION  AT  BOSTON. 

Okamel  Maktin Worcester. 

John  J.  May Dorchester. 

Andkew  McPhail Boston. 

Benjamin-  Mekriam West  Roxbury. 

John  J.  Merkill Eoxbury. 

Austin  IMessengek Norton. 

Elisha  C.  Monk Stoiighton. 

Marcus  Morton Andover. 

Curtis  C.  Nichols Cambridge. 

John  A.  Nowell  .     .     .     ." Boston. 

Edwin  Patch Lynn. 

Stephen  H.  Phillips Salem. 

William  Phillips Lynn. 

Edward  L.  Pierce Milton. 

George  W.  Pope Boston. 

Hiram  A.  Pratt Somerville. 

Laban  Pratt Dorchester. 

Nathan  B.  Prescott Eoxbury. 

David  Pulsifer Boston. 

JosiAH  M.  Read Boston. 

Oli-st:r  W.  Bobbins Pittsfield. 

George  W.  Russell Worcester. 

WiLLARD  Sears Newton. 

Samuel  E.  Sewall Melrose. 

Charles  A.  B.  Shepard Boston. 

Elijah  Shute Hingham. 

Horace  E.  Smith Albany,  N.  Y. 

Charles  A.  Stevens Ware. 

Eben  F.  Stone Newburyport. 

John  L.  Swift Roxbury. 

David  Thayer Boston. 

Albert  Tolman Worcester. 

William  B.  Trask Dorchester. 

Samson  R.  Urbino Roxbury. 

Edwin  Walden Lynn. 

Caleb  A.  Wall Worcester. 

William  A.  Wallace Canaan,  N.  H. 

John  W.  Wetherell Worcester. 


NAMES    OF    GENTLEMEN    PRESENT.  13 

Alfred  Williams Eoxbury. 

John  Winslow Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Bartholomew  Wood Kewton. 

Roland  Worthington Eoxbury. 

Stephex  C.  Wrightingtox     ......  Fall  River. 

John  C.  Wymax Valley  Falls,  R.  I. 

James  X.  W.  Yerrixgton Boston. 

William  F.  Young Wakefield. 

Two  hours,  from  11  a.m.  to  1  p.m.,  were  devoted  to 
the  interchange  of  congratulations  and  the  renewal 
of  old  friendships.  The  presence  of  John  G.  Whittier, 
who  notwithstanding  his  advanced  age  and  infirm 
health  could  not  lose  this  opportunity  of  meeting 
his  old  friends  and  associates,  added  greatly  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  occasion.  The  interdict  of  his  phy- 
sician alone  prevented  Mr.  Whittier's  attendance  at 
the  dinner. 

Promptly  at  1  o'clock  p.m.  Hon.  Edward  L. 
Pierce,  of  Milton,  President  of  the  day,  led  the  way 
to  the  large  dining-hall,  where  plates  had  been  laid 
for  one  hundred  and  ten  guests.  Mr.  Pierce  took 
the  head  of  the  table,  and  near  him  were  seated 
Chief-Justice  Morton,  Hon.  Horace  E.  Smith,  Hon. 
Samuel  E.  Sewall,  Hon.  Francis  W.  Bird,  Col.  Thomas 
W.  Higginson,  Hon.  Robert  T.  Davis,  Hon.  Eben  F. 
Stone,  Hon.  John  Winslow,  and  others.  The  dinner, 
which  was  served  in  the  best  style  of  the  famous 
Parker  House,  lasted  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  when 
the  company  w'as  called  to  order  by  Mr.  Pierce, 
who  then  proceeded  to  make  the  opening  address 
of  the  occasion  as  follows  :  — 


14  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 


ADDRESS   OF   HON.    EDWARD   L.   PIERCE. 

Veteran  Free  Soilers  op  Massachusetts  !  Forty  years 
ago  you  rallied  for  the  defence  of  freedom  in  the  United 
States.  Forty  years  ago  this  day,  in  the  city  of  Worcester, 
under  tlie  open  sky,  to  the  number  of  thousands,  the  free- 
men of  the  Commonwealth,  coming  from  all  its  counties, 
met  with  one  inspiration,  and  declared  by  formal  resolu- 
tions and  the  voices  of  eloquent  orators  their  determina- 
tion to  resist  the  extension  of  slavery  to  another  foot  of 
American  soil.  Breaking  all  political  bonds,  they  took 
their  stand  against  existing  parties,  against  the  slave  in- 
terest of  the  South  and  the  organized  capital  of  the  North, 
and  set  up  a  new  and  independent  power  in  American  pol- 
itics. They  listened  on  that  day,  with  Samuel  Hoar  in  the 
chair,  to  resolutions  reported  by  Stephen  C.  Phillips,  and 
to  addresses  from  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Charles  Sumner, 
Henry  Wilson,  Amasa  Walker,  Joshua  Leavitt,  Edward  L. 
Keyes,  E.  Rockwood  Hoar,  Lewis  D.  Campbell,  and  Joshua 
R.  Giddings,  —  all  save  one  now  numbered  with  the  dead. 
That  assembly  combined  what  is  always  best  in  our  old  and 
beloved  Commonwealth,  —  that  conscience,  that  intelligence, 
and  that  faith  in  humanity  which  are  her  hereditary  glory. 
The  survivors  of  the  Free  Soil  party  of  Massachusetts  meet 
at  this  hour  to  mourn  no  lost  cause,  but  to  commemorate  a 
movement  at  once  glorious  and  triumphant.  We  come  not 
here  to  lament  the  dead,  or  to  indulge  in  regrets  that  our 
own  lives  are  passing.  Rather  with  full  hearts  let  us  re- 
joice that  God  gave  us  the  privilege  of  serving  such  a  cause, 
under  such  leaders,  and  with  such  associates. 

The  proceedings  which  resulted  in  the  convention  of 
June,  1848,  deserve  a  brief  reference.  The  Antislavery 
Whigs,  known  as  "  Conscience  Whigs,"  who  made  resist- 
ance to  slavery  the  paramount  issue,  had  been  from  1845 


ADDRESS    OF   HON.    EDWARD    L.    PIERCE.  15 

to  1848  in  conflict  with  the  "  Cotton  Whigs,"  who  treated 
that  issue  as  subordinate  to  the  maintenance  of  the  tariff 
and  the  financial  measures  of  the  Whig  party.     Some  of 
you  recall  tlie  Whig  State  conventions  of  1846  and  1847,  in 
both  of  which  'Sir.  Webster  appeared,  with  Palfrey,  Adams, 
Sumner,  and  Phillips  on  the  one  side,  and  Winthrop  on  the 
other.     In  May,  1848,  Mr.  Adams  called  a  conference  at 
his  oflfice,  which  was  attended  by  Phillips,  Sumner,  Wilson, 
Keyes,  E.  R.  Hoar,  Francis  W.   Bird,  and  Edward  Wall- 
cutt,  where  a  call  drawn  by  Mr.  Hoar  for  a  convention  was 
agreed  upon,  to  be  issued  in  case  the  Whig  convention  at 
Philadelphia  should  refuse  to  adopt  the  principle  of  exclud- 
ing slavery  from  the   territories,  and   should   nominate  a 
candidate  not  openly  committed  to  such  exclusion.     The 
Philadelphia    convention    rejected    a    resolution    affirming 
that  principle,  and  nominated  General  Taylor  for  Presi- 
dent.     Promptly   Charles   Allen   announced,  "  The   Whig 
party  is  here  and  this  day  dissolved  !  "   and,  referring  to 
the  conciliatory  offer  of  the  vice-presidency  to  Massachu- 
setts, added  with  emphasis  and  scorn,  "  Massachusetts  will 
spurn  the  bribe !  "     Wilson  followed  with  the  historic  pro- 
test, "  So  help  me  God,  I  will  do  all  I  can  to  defeat  the 
election  of  that  candidate  I  "     He  called  at  once  a  confer- 
ence of  those  who  were  ready  to  act  with  him,  and  fifteen 
attended,  of  whom  only  two    survive,  —  Stanley  Matthews 
of  Ohio,  now  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  and  John  C.  Yaughan  of  the  same  State,  a  retired 
editor,  now  living  in  Cincinnati.     Allen  and  Wilson  were 
true  to  their  word,  and  immediately  on  their  return  home 
appealed  to  their  constituents  by  address  and  letter.     The 
call  for  the  convention  at  Worcester,  already  drawn  and 
held  in  reserve,  was  issued,  and  forthwith  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  agitations  in  our  history  ensued.     Old  men  and 
young  men,  and  women  also,  joined  in  the  new  movement 
with  all  the  ardor  of  crusaders,  and  the  air  rang  with  the 


16  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT   BOSTON. 

voices  of  freedom  from  the  Berkshire  hills  to  the  sea.  Of 
the  officers  of  the  Worcester  convention,  all  are  gone.  Of 
the  speakers,  none  but  Judge  Hoar  survives.  Of  the  com- 
mittee on  platform,  of  whicli  Mr.  Phillips  was  chairman, 
only  Judge  Hoar  and  Milton  M.  Fisher,  of  Medway,  are 
living.  The  latter,  whose  Antislavery  work  goes  back  to 
1833,  fifty-five  years  ago,  is  with  us  to-day.  Of  the  dele- 
gates chosen  for  the  State  or  districts  to  attend  the  national 
Free  Soil  convention  at  Buffalo,  only  Josiah  G.  Abbott, 
John  A.  Kasson,  Chauncy  L.  Knapp,  and  Mr.  Fisher  sur- 
vive. Mr.  Adams  presided  over  the  mass  convention  at 
Buffalo ;  and  his  presence  at  one  of  its  sessions  being  re- 
quired elsewhere,  he  withdrew  from  the  chair,  calling  to  it 
Francis  W.  Bird,  a  veteran  whom  we  greet  to-day. 

The  greatness  of  the  issue  which  brought  the  Free  Soil 
party  into  existence  appears  when  we  recall  the  fact  that  at 
that  time  the  population  of  the  country,  slightly  exceeding 
twenty  millions,  was,  with  the  exception  of  Texas,  limited 
to  the  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  to  the  four  States 
contiguous  to  its  western  shore.  Beyond  the  great  river 
Iowa  alone  was  secure  to  freedom  ;  all  else  was  terri- 
tory with  destiny  undetermined.  The  propagandists  of 
slavery  demanded,  with  threats  of  disunion  and  armed  re- 
sistance, that  the  territories  —  those  recently  acquired  from 
Mexico  and  those  included  in  the  Louisiana  purchase  — 
should  be  opened  to  slavery.  That  vast  region,  then  unin- 
habited, but  now  swarming  with  population,  imperial  in 
space,  stretching  from  the  western  boundaries  of  Iowa  and 
Missouri  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  the  British  posses- 
sions to  the  Mexican  line,  with  untold  mineral  and  agri- 
cultural wealth,  was  in  peril.  Contemplate  its  territorial 
magnitude  and  its  capacity  as  a  seat  of  empire  !  It  em- 
braced more  than  sixteen  hundred  thousand  square  miles, — 
five  times  as  many  as  were  included  in  the  original  thirteen 
States,  and  more  than  half  of  our  entire  dominion  before  the 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.    EDWARD    L.    PIERCE.  17 

later  purchase  of  Alaska.    It  was  altogether  unrecognized  in 
the  census  of  1840,  and  was  reported  in  that  of  1850  with 
only  two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  chiefly  natives  and 
new  settlers   in  California   and   New  Mexico.     To-dav  it 
numbers  not  less  than  seven  millions  of  people,  more  than 
a  third  of  the  entire  population  of  the  United  States  in 
1848,  —  a  number  which,  in  view  of  the  western   move- 
ment of  the  mass  of  emigrants  from  continental  Europe,  is 
likely  to  rise  to  twenty-five  millions  within  the  lifetime  of 
men  now  living.     Truly  the  Free  Soilers  of  1848  did  not 
exaggerate  when  they  warned  the  people  that  the  destinies 
of  countless  millions  were  at  stake.     Their  movement  saved 
Oregon,  which  under  its  pressure  was  organized  as  a  free 
territory  immediately  on  the  adjournment  of   the  Buffalo 
convention.     It  concentrated  the  Antislavery  sentiment  of 
the  North  against  the  extension  of  slavery.    It  stood  defiant 
when  the  two  old  parties  declared  the  compromise  measures 
of  1850  a  finality,  and  attempted  to  crush  out  all  agitation 
against  them.     It  prepared  the  way  for  that  larger  move- 
ment which  came  near  success   in   1856,  and   finally  tri- 
umphed in  1860.     History  commemorates  it  as  one  of  the 
stages  in  that  grand  conflict  with  slavery  which  made  our 
country  free  from  ocean  to  ocean,  with  no  master  and  no 
slave  in  any  part  of  its  domain.     Sumner  expressed  its 
significance  at  the  time:    "We  found  now  a  new  party. 
Its  corner-stone  is  freedom.    Its  broad,  all-sustaining  arches 
are  truth,  justice,  and  humanity." 

The  specific  object  of  the  Free  Soil  movement  of  1848 
was  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  territories  ;  but  its 
idea  and  spirit  were  broader.  Its  platform  at  Buffalo, 
largely  the  work  of  Salmon  P.  Chase,  assisted  by  Charles 
Francis  Adams  and  Benjamin  F.  Butier,  of  New  York, 
called  for  legislation  by  Congress  against  slavery  wherever 
it  depended  on  national  law.  Satisfied  with  this  compre- 
hensive declaration;  the  Liberty  party,  which  had  cast  seven 


18  FREE    SOIL    REUNION    AT    BOSTON. 

tliousand  votes  in  1840  and  sixty-two  thousand  in  1844,  in 
each  case  for  James  G.  Birney,  joined  in  the  new  party, 
which,  with  Van  Buren  and  Adams  as  candidates,  cast  two 
liundred  and  ninety-one  thousand  in  1848.  Their  numbers 
were  reduced  in  1852  to  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  thousand, 
chiefly  hy  the  return  of  the  Barnburners  of  New  York  to 
tlie  Democratic  party.  In  Massachusetts  the  party  main- 
tained its  vigor  until  the  election  of  1854,  when  it  was 
distracted  by  the  Know-Nothing  controversy,  A  year  or 
two  later  it  was  merged  in  the  Republican  party,  which 
grew  out  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

The  Free  Soilers  of  Massachusetts  were  men  of  extra- 
ordinary vitality.  Not  only  their  foremost  leaders,  but 
their  chief  men  in  towns  and  cities  were  strong  in  their 
combination  of  intellect,  will,  and  intense  moral  convic- 
tions. Casting  less  than  forty  thousand  votes  at  their 
highest  point,  and  falling  at  times  below  thirty  thousand, 
less  than  a  tliird  of  the  voters  of  the  State,  it  is  note- 
worthy liow  many  of  them  afterward  came  to  the  front 
rank  in  public  life.  Samuel  Hoar,  Horace  Mann,  Stephen 
C.  Phillips,  and  Edward  L.  Keyes  died  before  the  war ;  but 
the  other  leaders  lived  to  take  part  in  the  civil  conflicts 
which  ended  in  the  entire  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States.  The  Legislature  chosen  in  1850  placed  Sumner 
in  the  Senate,  where  he  remained  till  his  death,  in  1874j 
always  the  Antislavery  protagonist  in  Congress,  and  for 
ten  years  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations. 
Wilson  became  his  colleague  in  1855,  succeeding  Edward 
Everett,  served  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  Military 
AITalrs  during  the  war,  and  when  he  died,  in  1875,  was 
holding  the  second  office  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Adams,  entering  Congress  by  an  election 
in  1858,  was  soon  called  to  represent  tlie  country  as  its 
ambassador  to  Great  Britain,  and  to  conduct  the  most  im- 
portant diplomatic  controversy  in  our  history;  the  public 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.    EDWARD    L.    PIERCE.  19 

spirit  inherited  from  his  ancestors  he  transmitted  to  his 
sons,  two  of  whom  were  old  enough  to  give  their  youthful 
sympathies  to  the  Free  Soil  cause.  Charles  Allen  was 
chosen  to  a  seat  in  Congress,  and  later  served  for  a  long 
period  as  chief-justice  of  the  Superior  Court.  E.  Rock  wood 
Hoar  has  served  as  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State,  member  of  Congress,  and  attorney-general  of  the 
United  States.  Anson  Burlingame,  after  service  in  Con- 
gress, became  our  minister  to  China,  and  was  adopted  by 
that  country  as  its  ambassador  to  European  nations  and 
our  own.  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  as  United  States  district 
attorney  and  author,  assisted  in  the  just  settlement  of  most 
important  questions  of  international  law,  and  was  nominated 
minister  to  England,  his  confirmation  being  defeated  only 
by  personal  malignity.  John  A.  Andrew  became  illustri- 
ous as  governor  of  the  State  during  the  Civil  War,  and 
after  an  interval  William  Claflin  was  his  successor  in  that 
office.  Marcus  Morton,  of  Taunton,  an  old  Jcffersonian 
Democrat,  came  with  his  three  gifted  sons  into  the  move- 
ment ;  and  the  one  bearing  his  name  and  inheriting  his 
judicial  faculty  lias  had  a  career  of  thirty  years  on  the 
bench,  and  now  holds  the  high  office  of  chief-justice  of  the 
Commonwealth:  we  gratefully  recognize  his  presence  at  this 
table  to-day.  To  the  roll  of  members  of  Congress  has 
been  added  from  the  party,  besides  names  already  men- 
tioned, those  of  George  F.  Hoar,  of  Worcester,  now  our 
senator  in  Congress,  and  one  of  the  foremost  in  that  great 
body ;  John  A.  Kasson,  of  New  Bedford,  at  one  time  min- 
ister to  Austria ;  Alexander  De  Witt,  of  Oxford ;  Amasa 
Walker,  of  North  Brookfield  ;  John  D.  Baldwin  and  William 
W.  Rice,  both  of  Worcester ;  Chauncy  L.  Knapp,  of  Lowell ; 
Daniel  W.  Gooch,  of  Melrose ;  John  B.  Alley,  of  Lynn  ; 
Eben  F.  Stone,  of  Newburyport;  Henry  L.  Pierce,  of  Dor- 
chester ;  and  Robert  T.  Davis,  of  Fall  River.  One  of  the 
most  gifted  of  the  Free  Soilers  of  1848  was  Erastus  Hop- 


20  FREE    SOIL    REUNION    AT    BOSTON. 

kins,  of  the  Connecticut  valley,  ever  to  be  remembered  as 
an  orator  of  rare  grace  and  power,  and  a  steady  and  un- 
selfish advocate  of  freedom ;  we  are  glad  to  recognize  his 
features  and  genius  in  his  son,  a  leader  of  the  bar  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  present  with  us. 

But  I  must  not  prolong  the  enumeration.  Time  would 
fail  me  to  tell  of  Gideon  and  of  Barak,  and  of  Sam- 
son and  of  Jephthah,  of  David  also,  and  Samuel,  and 
of  the  Prophets,  who  through  faith  stood  firm  for  the  free- 
dom of  a  race,  wrought  righteousness,  out  of  weakness 
were  made  strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight,  breasted  social 
and  political  proscription,  and  served  faithfully  a  cause  as 
holy  as  any  for  which  martyrs  have  died.  We  have  with 
us  as  participants  in  this  reunion  two  distinguished  men, 
whose  Antislavery  service  exceeds  a  half  century  in  du- 
ration,—  John  G.  Whittier,  the  poet  of  freedom,  now  of 
four-score  years  ;  and  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  still  older,  the 
Nestor  of  the  Massachusetts  bar,  born  in  the  last  year  of 
the  last  century.  We  welcome  with  tender  regard  the 
author  of  those  inspiring  hymns  which  touched  the  hearts 
of  millions  of  freemen  and  broke  the  fetters  of  the  slave ; 
we  honor  the  patriarch  of  the  law,  whose  services  were 
always  at  the  command  of  fugitive  slaves  before  hostile  or 
unsympathetic  tribunals.  In  this  connection  I  ought  to 
recall  to  you  that  the  Liberty  party  cast  one  thousand  votes 
for  its  first  candidate  for  governor  in  1841,  and  nearly 
thirty-five  hundred  the  next  year ;  and  that  from  1843 
to  1847  inclusive  —  five  successive  years  —  the  standard- 
bearer  was  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  whose  vote  rose  from  six 
thousand  to  nearly  ten  thousand  ;  his  modesty  and  self- 
abnegation  have  alone  kept  him  from  being  called  to  high 
public  trusts.  We  are  fortunate,  too,  in  the  presence  of 
Horace  E.  Smith,  formerly  of  Chelsea,  now  dean  of  the 
Law  School  at  Albany ;  of  John  Winslow,  formerly  of 
Newton,  now  an  eminent  citizen  and  lawyer  of  Brooklyn, 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.    EDWARD    L.    PIERCE.  21 

N.  Y. ;  and  of  Francis  W.  Bird,  who  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
eight  retains  the  freshness  and  vitality  of  youth.  One 
word  for  the  absent,  whom  necessity  and  not  their  choice 
prevents  their  mingling  in  this  festivity,  —  Annis  Merrill,  of 
Boston,  who  emigrated  to  California  in  1849,  and  now  lives 
in  San  Francisco  ;  Shubael  P.  Adams,  of  Lowell,  who  has 
lived  since  1857  in  Dubuque,  Iowa  ;  John  A.  Kasson,  of 
New  Bedford,  long  a  resident  of  the  same  State  ;  and 
Herman  Kreissman,  of  Boston,  later  of  Chicago,  once 
consul-general  to  Germany,  and  now  residing  in  Berlin. 
Among  others  necessarily  absent  are  John  B.  Alley,  now 
travelling  abroad ;  William  Claflin,  who  engaged  his  seat 
with  us,  but  was  at  the  last  moment  kept  away  by  a  dis- 
ability resulting  from  a  recent  accident ;  Henry  L.  Pierce, 
who  is  on  his  way  to  Europe ;  Judge  Hoar,  who  is  seeking 
health  at  Sharon  Springs ;  and  his  brother,  the  senator, 
engaged  in  public  business  at  Washington. 

A  reunion  of  the  Free  Soilers  of  Massachusetts  took 
place  at  Melville  Garden,  in  Hingham,  August  9,  1877,  — 
the  twenty-ninth  anniversary  of  the  convention  at  Buffalo, 
where  many  here  to-day,  and  others  no  longer  living,  were 
the  guests  of  the  late  Samuel  Downer.  This  second  re- 
union, it  is  altogether  probable,  will  be  the  last  celebration 
of  that  historic  movement.  Allow  me  to  add  one  sugges- 
tion. This  occasion  is  commemorative,  and  has  no  rela- 
tion to  present  controversies  or  divisions.  The  heats  of 
youth  are  passed,  and  we  can  all  well  afford,  however  we 
may  now  be  parted  in  our  political  relations,  to  give  this 
day  to  common  memories  of  a  great  struggle  in  which  we 
stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  defence  of  human  liberty  on 
this  continent. 

Mr.  Pierce's  speech  was  frequently  interrupted 
by  applause,  —  mention  of  the  names  of  Phillips, 
Sumner,   Wilson,    Sewall,    Bird,    and    of  the    poet 


22  FKEE    SOIL   REUNION    AT   BOSTON. 

Whittier,  who  had  left  the  reception  room  a  few 
moments  before  the  dinner,  being  particularly  well 
received. 

The  President  :  By  right  of  his  advanced  age 
and  priority  of  service,  Samuel  E.  Sewall  should 
have  the  first  place  in  the  order  of  speeches,  and  I 
now  call  upon  him  to  address  you. 

REMARKS   OF   HON.    SAMUEL   E.    SEWALL. 

« 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Brother  Free  Soilers,  —  I  ought 
not  to  allow  myself  to  be  called  upon,  as  I  have  made  no 
preparation  for  a  speech.  Still,  I  could  not  refuse  the 
request  when  I  was  asked  by  the  president  a  short  time 
ago,  and  so  I  speak,  tliough  I  have  very  little  to  say. 

Gentlemen,  we  were  engaged  not  only  in  a  righteous 
figlit,  but  in  a  most  delightful  one.  We  enjoyed,  I  doubt 
not,  the  contest  in  those  days.  We  must  rejoice  now  that 
we  were  engaged  in  that  contest,  and  that  we  still  survive 
to  enjoy  its  memories  at  the  present  time.  But,  as  I  said 
in  the  beginning,  I  have  only  to  express  the  satisfaction 
which  I  feel  at  being  here  and  among  you.  I  will,  how- 
ever, sa}--  one  word  in  advocacy  of  a  cause  which  is  exactly 
analogous  to  this  matter  of  the  emancipation  of  slavery,  and 
that  is  this :  I  recommend  to  the  attention  of  all  who  are 
here  present  the  emancipation  of  women.  Old  Cato,  when- 
ever he  ended  a  speech  in  the  Roman  Senate,  was  sure  to 
add :  "  This  I  say,  and  Carthage  must  be  destroyed ! " 
So  I  finish  by  saying,  The  emancipation  of  women  must 
be  carried ! 

A  hearty  round  of  applause  was  given  Mr.  Sewall 
as  he  sat  down. 


REMARKS    OF    THE    PRESIDENT.  23 

The  President  :  It  was  observed  that  as  we  took 
our  seats  some  gentlemen  waited,  as  if  in  a  reverent 
mood,  for  some  one  to  say  grace ;    and  it  is  fitting 
to  explain  why  no  one  rose  to  perform  the  service. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  James  Freeman  Clarke,  who  served  as 
chaplain  at  Downer's   Landing  in   1877,  had   been 
designated  for  the  same  office  on  this  occasion;  but 
we  were  called  to  mourn  his  death  on  the  eighth 
day  of  this  month.     "We  then  applied  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Andrew  P.  Peabody,  of  Cambridge,  who  in  1848  was 
the  pastor  of  a  church  in  Portsmouth,  N.  H.     Early 
in  the  month  of  August  of  that  year  he  wrote  an 
open  letter  to  a  friend,  in  which,  replying  to  the  as- 
sertion that  it  was  always  a  duty  to  choose  between 
two  evils  rather  than  make  one's  action  ineffective, 
he  said  that  he  recognized  no  such  duty  under  the 
circumstances,  and    that   if  the   alternative   in   the 
pending  election  were   to   be   between  Moloch  and 
Belial,  he  should  take  his  place  with  Gabriel  and  the 
"  scattering  "  voters.     To   our  regret,  Dr.  Peabody, 
though  sympathetic  with  our  commemoration  to-day, 
and  anxious  to  be  with  us,  was  obliged  to  decline  in 
favor  of  a  previous  engagement  at  the  anniversary 
exercises  of  Harvard  College.    AVe  were  then  unable 
to  recall  any  other  survivor  of  1848  who  could  ap- 
propriately fill  the  vacant  place  of  the  lamented  Dr. 
Clarke. 

In  1848  two  young  men  led  the  Free  Soilers  of 
Newburyport  and  Essex  north,  —  Colonel  Eben  F. 
Stone,  and  Colonel,  then  Reverend,  Thomas  W. 
HiGGiNSON,  both  with  us  to-day.  I  now  present  to 
you  the  latter. 


24  FREE    SOIL    REUNION    AT    BOSTON. 


ADDRESS  OF  THOMAS  W.  HIGGINSON. 

Mr.  Chairman,  —  A  small  boy  in  the  story  asked  his 
father,  who  looked  a  little  depressed  at  breakfast,  what  was 
the  matter  with  him.  He  replied  that  he  was  depressed 
because  he  had  that  day  to  engineer  a  public  meeting. 
"  Why,"  said  the  boy,  "  I  should  think  that  would  be 
easy  enough.  All  you  have  got  to  do  is  to  turn  on  the 
cranks."  Now  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  have  not  merely  to 
turn  on  the  cranks,  but  to  get  together  a  body  composed  of 
men  every  one  of  whom  was  considered  a  crank  forty  years 
ago.  And  he  probably  was  one  in  his  secret  soul,  and  is  as 
much  of  a  crank  to-day  as  he  was  half  a  century  ago.  That 
is  the  sort  of  quality  that  does  not  get  out  of  a  man.  Talk 
about  the  heats  of  youth  !  They  go  out  of  us ;  but  we  have 
all  to  struggle  with  the  heats  of  age,  which  are  much  harder 
to  conquer  than  the  heats  of  youth.  Look  at  our  dear  old 
friend  Sewall,  who  has  just  launched  us  all  into  another 
cause,  whether  we  espouse  it  or  no.  It  is  the  way  these 
reformers  are  made ;  there  is  no  getting  it  out  of  them. 
Lord  Bacon  said,  in  his  essay  on  "  Youth  and  Age,"  —  he 
is  a  man  of  whom  you  may  probably  have  heard :  a  man 
whose  plays,  it  is  claimed,  are  performed  at  our  theatres, — 
Lord  Bacon  said  that  heat  and  vivacity  in  age  make  the 
best  of  all  compositions  for  business.  And  if  you  doubt  it, 
apply  to  Mr.  Sewall  or  Mr.  Francis  Bird. 

We  have  come  here,  Mr.  Chairman,  looking  back  on 
forty  years  ago,  to  write  in  a  manner  the  epitaph  of  a  move- 
ment with  which  we  were  then  identified ;  and  that  is  prac- 
tically the  same  thing  as  writing  our  own  epitaph.  We  have 
it  on  the  authority  of  one  of  the  men  who  came  near  being 
nominated  for  President  at  Chicago,  but  was  not,  that  every 
man  ought  to  write  his  own  epitaph,  because  no  one  is  usu- 


ADDRESS    OF    THOMAS    W.    HIGGINSON.  25 

ally  so  familiar  with  the  virtues  of  the  deceased.  Mr.  Depew 
was  right;  and  it  is  the  same  witli  us  to-day.  If  we  do  not 
spend  the  afternoon  in  speaking  well  of  ourselves,  we  shall 
waste  it.  Do  not  imagine  that  we  can  rely  on  any  one  else 
to  do  it  for  us.  However  great  any  movement  may  be,  it 
will  rarely  bring  immortality  to  those  who  take  part  in  it. 
The  rewards  of  great  actions  do  not  come  in  tliat  form. 
What  great  agitation  in  England  is  known  by  the  names 
of  more  than  one  or  two  leaders  ?  That  great  movement 
which  led  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  in  the  West 
Indies,  an  agitation  which  broke  up  families  and  beggared 
wealthy  men,  —  how  much  is  left  of  the  individuals  taking 
part  in  \t,  except  the  bare  names  of  Wilberforce  and  Clark- 
son  ?  All  the  rest  are  forgotten.  The  great  history  of  the 
English  Corn-law  agitation  shows  the  same  thing;  we  know 
only  the  names  of  Cobden  and  Bright,  Bright  and  Cobden. 
If  we  are  to  find  our  reward  in  the  shape  of  personal 
fame,  we  shall  probably  never  have  it ;  that  comes  only  to 
the  few.  Of  all  the  men  concerned  in  that  great  Free 
Soil  movement,  perhaps  the  only  one  man  who  will  go 
down  to  immortality  is  Charles  Sumner.  And  the  names 
of  those  who  will  be  linked  with  his,  will  be  one  or  two  of 
the  men  who  denounced  us  ;  but  they  were  men  like  Gar- 
rison and  Phillips,  of  whom  we  were  glad  to  learn,  even 
while  they  reproved  us.  How  many  of  the  heroes  our 
chairman  commemorated  are  now  even  remembered  by  the 
press  ?  How  great  were  the  services  of  John  G.  Palfrey  ! 
I  remember  speaking  to  him  on  his  own  doorstep,  when 
he  said  to  me :  "  The  hard  thing  is  not  to  encounter  the 
denunciations  of  the  newspapers  or  of  public  opinion ;  the 
hard  thing  to  bear  is  the  attitude  of  men  who  have  loved 
you,  and  whom  you  have  loved  all  your  life,  and  who  pass 
you  by  in  the  streets  without  speaking  to  you."  What  is 
his  reward  in  history  ?  Why,  Stedman,  in  his  book  on  the 
poets   of    the    United    States,  mistakenly  enumerates   him 

4 


26  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

amonsr  the  "  doughfaces  "  whom  Lowell  satirizes  ;  and  Dr. 
Pcabody  of  Cambridge  says  of  him  in  his  "  Reminiscences  " 
that  he  was  defeated  for  Congress  because  his  Antislavery 
views  were  not  sufficiently  pronounced  !  How  firmly  The- 
odore Parker  phmted  liis  feet  on  the  earth !  He  left  a 
record  which  it  seemed  would  be  illustrious  even  for  one 
hundred  years,  its  praises  sounded  and  its  brightness  never 
to  be  dimmed.  Yet  on  looking  at  the  last  edition  of 
the  one  great  dictionary  of  biography  of  the  world,  the 
French  "  Biographic  Generale,"  you  will  find  that  Theodore 
Parker  was  an  eminent  Boston  clergyman,  who  devoted  his 
life  to  vindicating  the  infallibility  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
and  the  deity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  ! 

These  things  illustrate  how  little  the  most  heroic  action 
avails  to  secure  the  reward  of  permanent  fame.  Its  re- 
ward comes,  if  anywhere,  in  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  a 
great  result  secured. 

Forty  years  ago  we  undertook  a  certain  work,  which  no 
disguises  of  history  can  put  out  of  sight ;  and  that  work  is 
done.  I  went  a  week  or  two  ago,  for  the  first  time  in 
thirty-two  years,  across  the  plains  to  Kansas.  I  revisited 
the  scenes  of  the  struggle,  which  some  of  you  contributed 
money  to  support,  in  order  to  vindicate  the  right  of  freedom 
at  that  time.  I  saw  across  those  prairies  stately  cities  that 
have  risen,  with  universities,  public  halls  and  libraries, 
where,  thirty-two  years  ago,  I  left  only  the  few  log-huts 
occupied  by  the  few  emigrants  supported  by  the  charity  — 
no,  the  patriotism  —  of  Massachusetts.  I  left  those  prai- 
ries then  without  a  tree.  I  came  back,  and  found  them 
without  a  slave.  That  was  the  record  of  these  thirty-two 
years,  all  proceeding  remotely,  —  not  so  very  remotely, — 
proceeding  legitimately  from  the  modest  movement  which 
was  initiated  in  that  State  so  long  ago.  In  the  presence  of 
results  so  important  as  the  final  abolition  of  slavery,  what 
is   any  man's   reputation  ?     Who  cares  for  fame  ?     Who 


ADDRESS    OF    THOMAS    W.    HIGGINSON.  27 

cares  for  individuals,  except  that  they  furnish  friendships 
which  support  us  even  in  sorrow  and  discouragement? 
Who  cares  for  anything  in  the  past  except  the  magniiicence 
of  its  results  ?  It  was  the  joy  of  the  men  who  engaged  in 
it  while  it  lasted  ;  and  we  come  together  to-day  to  look  on 
one  another's  faces,  perhaps  for  the  last  time,  but  feeling 
that  the  work  in  which  we  took  part  was  rich  and  strong, 
and  worthy  of  American  humanity. 

I  have  only  one  thing  more  to  say,  Mr.  Chairman.  This 
I  wish  to  say,  with  the  understanding  that  whatever  dis- 
aster may  befall,  no  blame  is  to  attach  to  you  as  the  con- 
ductor. I  remember  what  Sam  Weller  said  timidly  to  his 
father  when  he  wrote  his  love-letter  to  Mary :  "  I  might 
end  it  with  a  werse."  His  father  objected,  but  Sam  per- 
sisted, and  ended  it :  "  Your  love-sick  Pickwick."  I  am 
going  to  end  this  speech  with  a  verse,  or  only  three  verses 
at  the  longest. 

The  speaker  then  proceeded  to  read  the  following 
original  poem,  entitled  — 

WAITING  FOR  THE  BUGLE. 

We  wait  for  the  bugle  ;  the  night-dews  are  cold, 

The  limbs  of  the  soldiers  feel  jaded  and  old  ; 

The  field  of  our  bivouac  is  windy  and  bare, 

There  is  lead  in  our  joints,  there  is  frost  in  our  hair ; 

The  future  is  veiled  and  its  fortunes  unknown 

As  we  lie  with  hushed  breath  till  the  bugle  is  blown. 

At  the  sound  of  that  bugle  each  comrade  shall  spring 
Like  an  arrow  released  from  the  strain  of  the  string ; 
The  courage,  tlie  impulse  of  youth  shall  come  back 
To  banish  the  chill  of  the  drear  bivouac ; 
And  sorrows  and  losses  and  cares  fade  away 
When  that  life-giving  signal  proclaims  the  new  day. 


28  FREE    SOIL    REUNION    AT    BOSTON. 

Though  the  bivouac  of  age  may  put  ice  in  our  veius, 
And  no  fibre  of  steel  in  our  sinew  remains  ; 
Though  the  corarafles  of  yesterday's  march  are  not  here, 
And  the  sunlight  seems  pale  and  the  branches  are  sere  ; 
Though  the  sound  of  our  cheering  dies  down  to  a  moan,  — 
We  shall  find  our  lost  youth  when  the  bugle  is  blown. 

The  speech  of  Colonel  Higginson  and  the  beau- 
tiful poem  with  which  it  concluded,  were  deeply  ap- 
preciated and  warmly  applauded  by  the  audience. 

The  President  :  We  shall  now  listen  to  Francis 
W.  Bird,  of  Walpole,  whose  early  service,  already 
referred  to,  is  familiar  to  you  all. 

ADDRESS   OF   HON.   FRANCIS   W.   BIRD. 

Men  and  Brethren  !  Fellow  Independents  of  1848  ! 
How  freshly  this  gathering  reminds  us  of  what  it  cost  to 
be  Independents  in  those  days  !     But  history  repeats  itself. 

When  you  told  me,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  you  would  ex- 
pect me  to  say  a  few  words  to  our  old  comrades  to-day,  in 
rummaging  my  memory  for  the  text,  I  fell  upon  this  from 
the  "  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  — 

"  How  are  they  blotted  from  the  things  that  be ! 

How  few,  all  weak  and  withered  of  their  force. 
Wait  on  the  verge  of  dark  eternity, 

Like  stranded  wrecks,  the  tide  returning  hoarse 
To  sweep  them  from  our  sight!     Time  rolls  his  ceaseless  course." 

But  your  subsequent  hint,  "  Give  us  a  speech  in  a  cheer- 
ful strain,"  prohibited  notes  more  natural  to  an  octogena- 
rian. Haec  olim  meminisse  juvabit,  —  be  this  rather  the 
key-note. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  my  having  presided  over  the 
Buffalo  convention  in  1848.  This  happened  from  the  acci- 
dent of  my  standing  near  Mr.  Adams  when  he  was  called 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.    FRANCIS    W.    BIRD.  29 

out  to  attend  a  meeting  of  a  committee.  As  he  left  the 
chair,  he  whispered  to  me,  "  Fred  Douglass  wants  to  speak, 
but  these  Barnburners  don't  want  a  colored  man  to  appear 
on  the  platform."  Others  advised  me  not  to  recognize  him. 
My  reply  was,  "  If  Mr.  Douglass  addresses  the  chair,  he 
shall  have  the  floor  ;  "  and  he  did. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  proscription  which  befell  the 
Independents  of  those  times,  let  me  mention  one  incident. 
Walking  down  Beacon  Street  with  Dr.  Palfrey,  he  said, 
"  The  time  was  when,  if  I  found  myself  about  dinner-time 
without  any  particular  place  to  dine,  I  had  only  to  ring  one 
of  these  door-bells,  and  I  was  sure  of  a  welcome  ;  but  now 
it  is  a  long  time  since  my  legs  have  been  under  any  of  their 
mahogany." 

In  recalling  the  history  of  those  twenty  years  from  1848 
(eliminating  three  or  four  years  of  the  demoralizing  up- 
heaval of  Know  Nothinsism,  —  "Young  America  on  a 
spree  "),  I  love  to  dwell  upon  the  unselfish,  self- forgetful 
characters  of  the  leading  Free  Soilers  and  early  Republi- 
cans,—  yes,  even  of  the  politicians.  "  The  machine"  had 
not  then  been  invented,  at  least  for  us.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  Henry  Wilson's  election  to  the  United  States  senate 
by  the  Know  Nothing  legislature  of  1855,  no  important 
public  office  in  Massachusetts  was  ever  disposed  of  as 
"  truck  and  dicker." 

My  friends,  who  of  us  does  not  feel  what  a  benediction  it 
has  been  to  us  to  have  lived  in  those  times  and  with  those 
men  ?  Who  does  not  feel  that  if  we  have  done  the  State 
any  service,  it  has  been  largely  due  to  the  education  we 
received  from  them  ?  To  all  of  them  may  be  applied,  with 
almost  equal  truth,  what  I  said  some  years  ago  of  two  of 
them,  —  Samuel  G.  Howe,  and  John  A.  Andrew  (pardon 
me  for  quoting  myself)  :  "  These  great  and  good  men 
seemed  utterly  unconscious  that  their  own  agency  was  of 
the  slightest  importance  to  the  work  in  which  they  were 


30  FREE    SOIL   REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

engaged  ;  and  yet  tlioy  devoted  themselves  to  tlieir  work 
with  as  much  zeal  and  earnestness  as  if  they  felt  that  the 
result  depended  upon  the  personal  efforts  of  each.  Adams, 
Allen,  Andrew,  Howe,  Mann,  Palfrey,  Parker,  Phillips, 
Sumner ! 

'  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
We  may  make  our  lives  sublime.' 

When  has  been  granted  to  one  generation  the  inspiration 
of  such  men  ?  To  the  age  which  they  lighted  up  and  led, 
they  have  left  an  imperishable  record  of  '  noble  ends  by 
noble  means  attained  ; '  to  us  who  knew  and  loved  them, 

'  Learned  tlieir  great  language,  caught  their  clear  accents, 
Made  them  our  patterns,  to  live  or  to  die,' 

they  have  left  their  great  examples,  precious  memories,  and 
immortal  hopes." 

The  President  :  The  Free  Soil  party  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  1848  was  fortunate  in  its  candidate  for 
governor,  —  Stephen  C.  Phillips,  of  Salem,  distin- 
guished for  his  earnestness,  his  unselfish  devotion, 
and  the  power  with  which  in  his  addresses  and  writ- 
ings he  appealed  to  the  Antislavery  and  "  con- 
science "  sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  State.  His 
career  was  prematurely  closed,  or  he  would  have 
been  called  to  high  public  service.  We  pay  our 
tribute  to  him  to-day,  as  we  call  upon  his  filial 
representative,  Stephen  H.  Phillips,  at  one  time 
Attorney-general  of  Massachusetts. 

ADDRESS   OF    STEPHEN  H.   PHILLIPS. 

Mr.  President,  —  I  thank  you  most  profoundly  for  the 
affectionate  tribute  you  have  paid  to  one  so  near  and  dear 
to  me.     I  have  some  memory  of  the  stirring  events  of  the 


ADDRESS    OF    STEPHEN    H.    PHILLIPS.  31 

days  when  the  Free  Soil  party  was  in  its  infancy,  and  some 
reminiscences  may  be  recalled  witli  interest.  Tlie  first  of 
many  serious  conversations  with  my  father  that  I  can  re- 
member in  regard  to  the  tendency  of  the  times  was  in  1844. 
I  was  then  just  out  of  college,  and  just  beginning  the  study 
of  law  ;  and  I  remember  one  day  in  Salem,  toward  the  close 
of  the  Clay  campaign,  that  Judge  Charles  Allen,  of  Wor- 
cester, —  a  name  never  to  be  mentioned  without  respect  in 
such  an  audience  as  this,  —  came  down  there  and  said  to 
my  father  :  "  My  name  has  been  put  on  the  electoral  ticket 
of  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  but  I  begin  to  think  that 
Mr.  Clay  is  playing  us  false.  If  it  comes  to  that,  I  will 
stand  out  against  the  whole  movement.  Clay  or  no  Clay, 
party  or  no  party ;  and  I  will  vote  against  the  ticket  if 
there  is  to  be  any  truckling  to  the  slave  power.  It  is 
abominable,  and  I  will  not  submit  to  it ! " 

I  mention  that  to  show  the  intense  earnestness  of  feeling 
in  those  days.  Looking  back  at  it,  I  do  not  think  it  was 
true  that  Mr.  Clay  intended  to  play  false ;  the  alarm  was 
in  itself,  I  think,  false,  but  the  remark  showed  the  intense 
individuality  of  Judge  Allen.  Well,  Mr.  Clay  was  defeated, 
but  the  electoral  vote  of  Massachusetts  was  cast  for  him, 
and  Judge  Allen  voted  for  him.  Immediately  afterward 
there  began  a  movement  on  the  Texas  question,  and  it  was 
at  that  time,  I  remember,  that  my  father  told  me  he  had 
received  a  communication  from  Mr.  Webster,  which  led  up 
to  the  Free  Soil  conference,  and  on  the  whole  subject  both 
were  very  serious.  Mr.  Webster  said  :  "  This  is  a  Gordian 
knot ;  it  cannot  be  dissevered,  it  must  be  cut."  Shortly 
afterward,  at  Mr.  Webster's  suggestion,  a  meeting  was 
called  in  Boston  to  protest  against  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
and  an  address  was  prepared  and  sent  out  to  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  on  the  subject.  That  address  was  practically 
the  work  of  Mr.  Webster;  and  contains  these  words: 
"  Annexation    is    calculated    and    designed,    by   the    open 


32  FREE    SOIL    REUNION    AT    BOSTON. 

declaration  of  its  friends,  to  uphold  the  institution  of  sla- 
very, extend  its  influence,  and  to  cause  its  permanent 
duration."  He  took  the  pains  to  write  this  with  his  own 
pen.  I  hold  the  manuscript  of  that  address  in  my  hands. 
A  large  part  of  it  is  in  Mr.  Webster's  handwriting,  and  all 
of  it  was  written  at  his  dictation.  Well,  that  was  after 
all  the  proposition,  the  energetic  demand,  of  the  Free  Soil 
party. 

Mr.  Phillips  here  produced  the  original  manu- 
script, written  on  large  gilt-edged  paper,  such  as 
was  then  supplied  to  senators  and  cabinet  officers 
at  Washington.  He  added  that  he  always  under- 
stood the  address  to  have  been  prepared  in  Boston, 
at  Mr.  Webster's  office,  corner  of  Court  and  Tremont 
streets.     Mr.  Phillips  then  proceeded  :  — 

The  convention  was  held.  Soon  afterward  a  pamphlet 
was  published,  signed  first  by  the  name  of  "  John  Hamp- 
den," but  afterward  changed,  at  Mr.  Webster's  suggestion, 
to  "  A  Massachusetts  Freeman,"  which  was  widely  circu- 
lated throughout  Massachusetts,  with  Mr.  Webster's  ap- 
proval. Things  went  on.  We  had  struggle  after  struggle ; 
old  friends  deserted  us  and  new  friends  came  to  our  sup- 
port, and  the  Conscience  Whigs  proceeded  to  organize 
themselves.  My  friend  here  on  the  right  [Mr.  Bird]  is 
perhaps  the  only  representative  of  that  little  body  of  men 
who  used  to  meet  for  consultation  and  conference  in  Mr. 
Adams's  office.  Not  one  of  those  men  wished  to  leave  the 
Whig  party,  but  they  were  forced  by  the  inevitable  tendency 
of  things ;  cost  what  it  might,  they  had  to  do  it,  and  do  it 
they  did.  The  organization  was  made,  and  from  that  time 
forth  the  die  was  cast  and  the  work  went  on.  That  work 
is  all  before  us,  and  the  friends  who  are  here  to-day  might 
well  adopt  the  language  of  Macaulay,  and  say :  "  Its  law 


ADDRESS    OF    STEPHEN    H.    PHILLIPS.  33 

has  been  progress.  The  point  which  yesterday  was  invisi- 
ble is  its  goal  to-day,  and  will  be  its  starting  point  to- 
morrow." If  there  is  anything  which  will  cause  any  of  us 
to  take  pride  in  those  who  have  gone  before,  it  is  their 
devotion  to  the  cause  and  their  energy  in  its  behalf. 

Mr.  Phillips  spoke  of  the  earnest  warning  given 
him  by  Anson  Burlingame  against  leaving  the 
Whig  party  when  both  were  in  the  Law  School 
together;  and  continued:  — 

But  Mr.  Burlingame  lived  to  change  his  views.  If  there  is 
any  one  experience  strongly  impressed  upon  my  memory,  it 
is  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Burlingame,  at  Faneuil  Hall,  while 
the  crowd  were  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  speakers,  and  be- 
fore the  meeting  was  fairly  opened,  at  which  John  Yan  Buren 
spoke.  Calls  were  made  for  several  different  gentlemen, 
and  Mr.  Burlingame,  who  was  sitting  near  me  in  a  front 
seat  in  the  gallery,  was  singled  out  as  a  promising  young 
Whig  politician  who  could  not  accept  General  Taylor,  but 
whose  standing  had  not  become  very  clearly  defined.  He 
sprang  forward  in  answer  to  the  call,  and  his  position  was 
no  longer  uncertain.  "  We  are  standing,"  he  said  to  his 
old  Whig  friends,  "  by  the  guns  where  you  have  posted  us, 
and  we  mean  to  serve  them."  That  -was  the  introduction 
of  Anson  Burlingame  to  Free  Soil  politics  in  Massachusetts. 
Burlingame  afterward  became  a  strong  supporter  of  the 
Free  Soil  movement.  Robert  Rantoul,  Jr.,  was  also  spoken 
of  as  leading  the  forces  in  Essex  County  against  slavery, 
and  it  was  said  that  if  he  had  lived,  his  voice  would  have 
been  heard  in  higlier  places. 

I  think  we  have  a  right  to  look  back  with  no  ordinary 
pride  at  what  has  been  accomplished  by  the  Free  Soil 
leaders.  It  is  very  easy  now  to  meet  in  a  warm  and  com- 
fortable   room   and    say,  "  We  will    pay  a   grateful    tribute 


34  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT   BOSTON. 

to  their  memory ;  "  but  when  we  tliink  of  what  they  did 
and  of  what  they  had  to  suffer,  it  is  something  for  us  to 
ponder  over. 

The  President  :  You  will  now  listen  to  one  — 
not  old  enough  to  vote  in  1848,  but  coming  of  age 
a  year  or  two  later  —  who  has  probably  addressed 
more  audiences  than  any  man  now  living  in 
Massachusetts,  —  John  L.  Swift. 

ADDRESS   OF   GEN.   JOHN  L.    SWIFT. 

For  lialf  a  century  we  have  known  the  verse  of  our  Free 

Soil  poet,  whose  hands  we  have   lovingly  grasped  to-day. 

Over   and   over   again  have  we  read  that  charming   New 

England  idyl,  Whittier's  "  Snowbound."     At  the  close  he 

says :  — 

"  Haply,  in  some  lull  of  life, 
Some  Truce  of  God,  which  breaks  its  strife, 
The  worldling's  eyes  shall  gather  dew, 
Dreaming  in  throngful  city  ways 
Of  winter  joys  his  boyhood  knew; 
And  dear  and  early  friends  —  the  few 
Who  yet  remain  —  shall  pause  to  view 
These  Flemish  pictures  of  old  days." 

In  that  spirit,  we,  old  Free  Soilers,  in  the  sunset  of  our 
lives,  sit  around  this  table  to  look  together  upon  the  pic- 
tures of  the  past. 

My  words  will  be  few,  and  from  a  lump  that  keeps  com- 
ing up  in  my  throat,  it  is  doubtful  if  I  get  on  smoothly,  or 
a  great  way.  Here  once  more  are  those  who  have  not 
met  for  years,  and  yet  for  years  were  associated  in  a  poli- 
tical movement  compared  with  which  nothing  was  ever 
braver  in  political  morals  or  political  contests.  And  look- 
ing into  these  faces,  how  it  all  comes  back  !  Once  more 
we  see  the  crystallization  of  the  youth  of  Massachusetts 
around  that  most  splendid  interpretation  of  American  po- 


ADDRESS    OF    GEN.    JOHN    L.    SWIFT.  35 

litical  duty,  —  free  soil,  free  speech,  free  press,  free  men  ! 
a  crystallization  beginning  in  its  elementary  force  in  that 
trust  in  God  where  two  or  three  were  met  together  in  the 
name  of  liberty,  to  end  in  the  tramp  of  two  million  armed 
men  and  an  inseparable  nation,  acknowledging  no  master 
and  knowing  no  slave  under  the  flag.  My  first  vote  was  a 
Free  Soil  vote  ;  my  first  memories  are  Free  Soil  memories  ; 
my  first  warm  friends  of  early  manhood  were  Free  Soil 
friends.  Whatever  else  has  come  to  my  heart  of  expe- 
rience or  change,  there  has  never  been  anything  but  respect 
and  love  for  the  ''  Old  Guard,"  dead  and  living.  All  the 
real  estate  I  have,  unmortgaged,  is  a  burial  lot  at  Forest 
Hills.  How  soon  I  am  to  rest  there  I  do  not  know,  or 
fear  to  know.  I  would  not  have  the  spot  where  I  am  to 
be  laid  in  the  arms  of  Mother  Earth  designated  with  marble 
or  by  comment  cut  in  stone  ;  but  going  by  that  green 
mound,  if  those  who  outlive  me  halt  for  a  moment  and 
say,  "  Here  lies  an  old  Free  Soiler,"  they  may  see  the  grass 
and  the  leaves  bow  their  welcome  to  the  words,  and  the 
sunlight  smile  through  the  rifts  of  the  foliage  in  response 
to  their  greeting. 

Standing  here  the  past  rises  up  before  me.  I  am  again 
carrying  a  torch  in  one  of  those  Free  Soil  processions  that 
always  had  in  its  earliest  stages  more  torch-bearers  than 
votes.  Again  I  am  in  Faneuil  Hall,  listening  to  Charles 
Sumner  as  he  lifts  our  thoughts  on  wings  of  eloquence  to 
the  hallowed  summit  of  the  "  higher  law."  Again  we  as- 
sent to  Henry  Wilson,  that  man  of  the  people,  as  he  "  ven- 
tures to  predict."  Again  with  Anson  Burlingarae  I  pass 
hours  that  run  into  days  at  the  hospitable  home  of  our 
Nestor  here,  Hon.  Francis  W.  Bird,  — "  Frank  "  was  his 
name  in  old  Free  Soil  days  ;  and  one  day  as  the  grand 
jury  was  in  session  to  look  after  the  seditious  leaders  in 
the  effort  to  rescue  Anthony  Burns,  I  remember  he  came 
and  invited  me  to  go  with  him  and  Daniel  Wells  Alvord 


36        FREE  SOIL  REUNION  AT  BOSTON. 

fishing   in  the  Adirondacks  ;   he  thought  tlie  air  of  that 
mountain  region  more  conducive  to  the  health  and  safety 
of  a  Free  Soiler  than  the  easterly  winds  of  Boston :  this 
was  hefore  that  blessed  tract  had  been  desecrated  by  the 
trout   romancer.      Again   I   read  "  Warrington's "  incom- 
parable letters, —  the  brightest,  wittiest,  ablest  correspond- 
ent of  newspapers  Massachusetts  ever  produced.     Again  I 
pace  and  repace  Cambridge  bridge,  breathlessly  listening, 
till  after   midnight,  as  Burlingame   foreshadows  that  mo- 
ment,—  yes,  that  supreme  moment  in  American  history, — 
when  it  was  found  that  there  was  a  point  where  Americans 
reared  in  the  free  institutions  of  the  North  would  risk  their 
lives  for  honor  or  for  principles,  either  by  combat  of  .two 
on  the  soil  of  Canada,  or  by  armed  legions  on  the  soil  of 
the  South.     Again  I  see  the  faces,  and  some  are  here  to- 
day, of  that  faithful  band  who  every  year  met  the  evening 
before  the  Free  Soil   State  conventions,  irrepressible  and 
enthusiastic,  and   as   faithful   to   these   gatherings   as  the 
chosen  race  of  Israel  was  faithful  to  feasts  and  to  days 
when  the  tribes  went  up  together.     Then  was  shaped  that 
bold,  audacious,  forward,  unyielding  American  policy  which 
became  American  destiny,  and  which  lately,  on  the  floor  of 
Congress,  from  the  lips  of  a  generous  Kentuckian,  received 
the  most  magnificent  burst  of  eloquence  over  Massachu- 
setts' courageous  leadership  that  ever  has  been  or  ever  will 
be  uttered. 

Who  of  us  can  feel  other  than  justifiable  pride  as  we 
to  one  another  recall  these  scenes,  "  all  of  which  we  saw, 
and  part  of  which  we  were"?  It  has  been  said  of  our 
fathers  that  "  they  went  to  war  against  the  trained  armies 
of  England  with  two  field-pieces,  a  raw  militia,  and  an 
idea."  Like  them  we  grappled  with  a  trained,  organized 
political  force  intrenched  in  every  department  of  the  nation, 
with  a  few  conventions,  a  crude  platform,  and  with  raw 
recruits  pledged  to  live  or  die  by  the  idea  that  peace  and 


ADDRESS    OF    GEN.    JOHX    L.    SWIFT.  37 

order  in  this  republic  were  impossible  without  equal  and 
exact  justice  for  all  men,  white  or  black.  That  grand  and 
uncompromising  idea  linked  the  Free  Soil  ballot  to  the 
throne  of  the  most  high  God.  At  last  that  glorious  and 
irresistible  idea  under  Abraham  Lincoln  became  the  reign- 
ing political  thought ;  and  by  a  victorious  army  overmaster- 
ing obstacles  that  seemed  insurmountable,  and  by  processes 
almost  miraculous,  there  was  established  the  fact  of  free 
soil  and  the  theory  of  free  men  and  an  unfettered  speech 
and  press  on  every  foot  of  American  territory. 

To-day,  without  raising  any  questions  of  present  duty, 
or  lifting  the  veil  upon  the  future,  I  bow  before  the  mighty 
stride  for  human  rights  that  has  been  made  since  we  first 
rocked  the  Old  Cradle  of  Liberty  to  Free  Soil  cheers 
and  echoes.  When  Lafayette  visited  this  country  in  1824, 
he  was  received  at  a  municipality  in  Connecticut  on  his 
way  to  Boston  from  New  York.  The  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee was  an  old  Revolutionary  soldier  who  had  fought 
under  Lafayette  at  Monmouth.  He  had  not  seen  him  for 
forty-five  years,  and  he  wondered  if  the  brave  General  would 
recognize  him.  "When  they  met,  the  captain  from  emotion 
could  not  speak.  Lafayette  looked  at  him,  rushed  to  him, 
threw  his  arms  about  him,  exclaiming,  "  Captain,  my  old 
comrade,  God  bless  you  !  "  My  old  Free  Soil  comrades, 
God  bless  you,  every  one  ! 

The  President  :  We  have  a  gentleman  of  accu- 
rate knowledge,  acquired  by  experience  as  well  as 
study,  who  can  tell  you  how  the  Free  Soil  faith, 
once  regarded  as  moral  and  political  heresy  at  the 
South,  has  finally  got  a  foothold  in  that  region 
which  was  the  seat  of  American  slavery  in  1848, 
but  is  now  free.  I  refer  to  Edward  Atkinson,  of 
Brookline,  who  will  now  address  you. 


38  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT   BOSTON. 


ADDRESS   OF   EDWARD   ATKINSON. 

Gentlemen,  —  I  cannot  bring  to  you  many  reminiscences 
of  1848.  I  came  of  age  in  that  year,  and  threw  my  first 
vote  for  the  Free  Soil  ticket.  I  had,  however,  been  in  close 
relations  as  a  youth  with  the  old  Whigs  and  the  cotton 
manufacturers  of  that  day,  and  this  relation  with  the  cotton 
industry  has  continued  ever  since. 

The  only  incident  that  I  can  recall  may  show  that  the 
Devil  is  not  always  as  black  as  he  is  painted.  In  the  time 
of  the  old  New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  of  which 
I  was  one  of  the  original  stockholders,  I  applied  to  the 
Deacon  of  one  of  the  Orthodox  churches  of  Boston,  an  old 
Whig,  for  money  with  which  to  purchase  Sharp's  rifles  to 
be  sent  to  Kansas.  "  Oh,"  said  he,  "  I  can't  give  you  any 
money  to  buy  yuns  with;  leant  do  that;  but  see  here,  the 
men  who  carry  the  guns  will  need  some  beef,  and  I  will 
give  you  twenty-five  dollars  to  buy  some  beef  for  them." 
He  gave  me  the  money,  and  it  went  into  the  general  fund. 
I  never  asked  for  a  voucher  to  verify  the  beef  purchase. 

It  has  been  said  here  to-night  that  the  theory  of  free 
speech  has  extended  throughout  our  land.  I  can  myself 
bear  witness  not  only  to  the  theory  but  to  the  fact  that  free 
speech  has  extended  throughout  all  the  South.  It  was  my 
fortune  to  be  called  upon  to  speak  in  the  senate  chamber 
of  Georgia  in  October,  1880,  upon  the  proposed  Cotton 
Exposition,  which  they  then  desired  to  have  established  in 
Atlanta.  I  had  a  picked  audience  of  sixty  or  seventy  men, 
as  many  as  the  senate  chamber  could  hold  comfortably 
seated ;  the  Governor  and  the  principal  officials,  one 
United  States  senator,  ex-Senator  Toombs,  and  many  other 
leading  men,  politicians,  merchants,  and  manufacturers 
were  present.     I  had  recently  written  an  article  on   the 


ADDRESS    OF    EDWARD   ATKINSON.  39 

Solid  South  ;  and  a  few  days  before  I  reached  Atlanta  an 
attack  had  been  made  upon  me  in  one  of  the  Southern 
papers  by  a  clergyman  who  said  that  it  was  not  fit  that 
such  a  representative  of  the  North  should  be  called  upon  to 
speak  to  them.  It  was  clear  that  there  might  be  objection 
to  my  speaking,  and  I  said  to  myself,  Now  is  the  time  to 
try  this  question,  and  it  shall  be  tried.  I  began  in  a  quiet 
way,  but  before  I  had  gone  far  in  my  address  I  said  to 
them  something  like  this  :  — 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  South,  I  intend  to  use  free  speech  for  a 
purpose,  and  to  speak  plain  words  of  truth  and  soberness  unto  you. 
I  will  not  permit  myself  to  insult  you  by  admitting  even  in  my 
own  mind  that  I  cannot  speak  my  convictions  and  ask  certain  home 
questions  here  with  as  much  independence  as  I  can  in  my  own 
little  town  in  Massachusetts.  If  any  one  objects  to  free  speech,  let 
him  do  it  now.  Thank  God,  that  time  has  gone  by !  I  speak  to 
you  here  and  now  as  a  Republican  of  the  Republicans,  as  an 
Abolitionist  of  early  time,  a  Free  Soiler  of  later  date  ;  but  I  also 
speak,  and  yet  more  truly,  as  a  Democrat  of  Democrats,  because  no 
man  can  be  a  true  Democrat  who  does  not  maintain  the  equal 
right  of  every  man,  without  distinction  of  race,  color,  or  condition, 
to  speak,  act,  and  vote  as  he  freely  chooses." 

Then  and  there  I  received  as  hearty  a  round  of  applause 
as  1  ever  secured  in  any  address  I  have  ever  made.  A  little 
later  on  I  used  these  words:  — 

"  There  can  be  no  general  progress  where  the  laborer  is  not 
worthy  of  his  hire ;  and  that  land  will  always  be  accursed  where 
the  man  who  earns  his  daily  bread  by  the  work  of  his  own  hands 
is  not  honored.  When  slavery  ended,  not  only  were  blacks  made 
free  from  the  bondage  imposed  by  others,  but  whites  as  well  were 
redeemed  from  the  bondage  they  had  imposed  upon  themselves. 
In  that  dark  and  distant  past  did  your  cotton  land  improve  in  pro- 
duct every  year  ?  Or,  to  quote  the  words  of  Henry  A.  Wise,  of 
Virginia,  '  Did  not  your  niggers  skin  the  land,  and  your  white  men 
skin  the  niggers  ?  '  To  quote  again  from  Dr.  Cloud  of  Alabama? 
*  Did  n't  you  gully  your  hillsides,  and  blast  your  prairies  ? ' " 


40        FREE  SOIL  REUNION  AT  BOSTON. 

And  then  a  little  further  on,  quoting  from  the  minister 
who  had  attacked  me,  I  said  to  them  :  — 

"  It  has  been  said  here  within  a  few  days  that  the  Northern 
forces  two  million  strong,  backed  with  all  the  wealth  of  the  North, 
had  come  down  here  to  subdue  you.  It  is  not  true.  You  have  not 
been  subdued,  either  by  Northern  men  or  Northern  wealth ;  you 
have  surrendered  only  to  the  principle  of  Liberty  which  was 
incorporated  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  by  your 
ancestors  as  well  as  mine,  —  by  Laurens  of  South  Carolina  and 
Patrick  Henry  of  Virginia,  as  well  as  by  Hancock  and  Adams 
of  Massachusetts ;  and  I  call  upon  you  to  thank  God  with  me 
that  you  were  not  strong  enough  to  break  down  that  principle  of 
liberty." 

Never  before  in  all  my  life  had  I  received  such  an  ovation 
of  ai)plause  as  I  did  then  and  there.  And  then  I  said  to 
them :  — 

"  But  I  fear  we  have  made  a  mistake.  I  witness  the  progress 
that  you  are  making  in  all  the  arts  and  industries  born  of  liberty 
in  competition  with  us  of  the  North.  Suppose  I  go  back,  summon 
attain  the  armies  and  navies  of  the  North  to  come  down  here  two 
million  strong,  backed  with  all  our  wealth,  to  put  again  upon  your 
shoulders  the  burden  of  slavery  which  you  have  thrown  off,  — you 
would  fight  harder  to  keep  it  off  than  you  did  to  maintain  it ;  and 
THEN  you  would  beat  us  every  time,  and  rightly,  too.  Thank  God 
again  that  the  Potomac  has  not  become  the  Rhine,  dividing  two 
sections,  with  two  hostile  armies  watching  each  other  in  camp  and 
barracks  even  in  time  of  peace,  burdening  each  section  with  the 
evils  of  standing  armies  that  are  eating  out  the  heart  of  foreign 
countries  !  " 

Again  came  the  hearty  applause. 

A  few  days  later,  sitting  at  the  table  with  an  ex-Con- 
federate General  of  South  Carolina,  I  tried  my  customary- 
method  of  seeing  how  far  one  might  go  in  free  speech. 
I  said :  — 

"  One  day  at  a  meeting  of  the  old  Vigilance  Committee  in 
Boston  —  " 


,       ADDRESS    OF    EDWARD    ATKINSON.  41 

He  interrupted  me,  asking,  "  "What  was  that  ?  " 

Said  I,  "  A  committee  to  rescue  fugitive  slaves." 

"  Oh,"  said  he,  "  I  never  heard  of  that  committee  before." 

I  went  on :  "I  was  talking  with  Theodore  Parker." 

He  interrupted  me  again  :  "  Did  you  know  Theodore  Parker  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  I,  "  he  was  one  of  my  friends  ;  I  revered  him." 

Said  he,  "  I  wish  I  had  known  him ;  he  was  one  of  the  greatest 

men  this  country  ever  produced." 

I  again  resumed :  "  In  conversation  with  Theodore  Parker,  he 

said  to  me,  '  Mr.  Atkinson,  has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  this 

condition  of  slavery  is  a  state  of  passive  war,  and  the  only  logical 

outcome  of  passive  war  will  be  active  war,  by  which  it  will  destroy 

itself^ ' " 

«  When  did  he  say  that  ?  " 

"  Oh,  in   the  fifties,  just   after  the    Fugitive    Slave    Law  was 

passed." 

"  Well,"  said  the  General,  "  I  told  you  just  now  that  Theodore 

Parker  was  a  great  man ;  I  always  thought  so,  and  now  I  know  it. 

He  was  absolutely  right.     What  he  said  was  true." 

A  year  later  I  again  visited  Atlanta.  This  time  I  had 
occasion  to  address  an  audience  of  a  thousand  or  more  per- 
sons. In  that  speech  I  stated  to  them  that  I  expected  to 
live  to  see  the  day  when  either  the  ex-Confederate  soldiers 
or  their  children  would  erect  a  monument  to  John  Brown 
upon  the  heights  of  Harper's  Ferry  in  token  of  the  eman- 
cipation which  he  had  brought  to  the  white  men  of  the 
South.  If  you  can  find  an  example  of  free  speech  more 
complete  than  that,  I  wish  you  would.  The  suggestion  was 
not  received  with  applause,  but  neither  did  it  excite  any 
antagonism.  After  I  had  sat  down,  my  old  friend  Mr. 
Asabel  Smith,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  State  in  Texas 
when  Sam  Houston  was  President  of  the  Lone  Star  State, 
came  to  me  and  said,  "  Mr,  Atkinson,  I  go  with  you  on 
every  point  save  one."  "That's  the  statue,"  said  I. 
"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  I  'm  too  old  for  that ;  perhaps  you  will 
live  to  see  it,  but  /don't  expect  to."     Now  that  seemed  a 

6 


42  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

rash  prediction  ;  yet  not  many  months  ago,  the  editor  of 
the  "  Century  INIag-azine  "  sent  me  a  manuscript  to  revise, 
wliich  was  afterward  printed,  written  by  an  ex-Confederate 
ollicer  of  high  rank,  now  a  professor  in  one  of  the  Southern 
colleges,  in  which  the  ground  was  taken  that  the  North 
itself  had  not  witnessed  the  greatest  benefit  that  had  grown 
out  of  the  war,  and  that  had  beeti  the  emancipation  of  the 
tvhiteman  of  the  South. 

Now,  gentlemen,  what  more  complete  justification  could 
be  found  for  the  Free  Soilers  of  1848  than  these  examples 
which  I  have  given  you  of  free  speech  upon  the  free  soil  of 
our  Southern  land  ?     Or  again,  what  more  complete  justi- 
fication of  the  Avisdom  of  our  great  war  governor  John  A. 
Andrew,  when  he  counselled  us  after  the  war  still  to  move 
on  with  a  "  vigorous  prosecution  of  peace  "  ?    Such  has  been 
the  revolution  not  only  of  institutions  but  of  ideas  in  our 
Southern   land,    and   so   fully  have   our    Southern  friends 
learned  the  lesson  that  the  local  self-government  for  which 
most  of  them  claimed  to  fight  was  wholly  inconsistent  with 
the  existence  of  slavery,  —  and  yet  more,  so  well  has  the 
lesson  been  learned  that  in  their  very  defeat   they  have 
gained  the  cause  of  local  self-government  for  which  they 
fought,  that  there  are  none  with  whom  we  can  join  more 
heartily  hand  in  hand  to  sustain  the  Union  than  the  repre- 
sentatives of  local  self-government  and  State  rights  —  not 
State  sovereignty  ;  there  is  a  broad  distinction  —  in  South 
Carolina  and  in  Massachusetts.     Perverted  no  longer  by 
the  existence  of  slavery  in  their  ideas  of  what  State  rights 
consist  in,  the  men  of  the  South  and  the  men  of  the  North 
may  well  unite  in  maintaining  local  self-government  under 
the  central  sustaining  power  of  this  great  nation,  to  which 
the   allegiance  of   all   is   now  so   cheerfully  and   so   fully 
rendered. 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.    JOHN    WINSLOW.  43 

The  President  :  Among  the  Free  Soil  speakers 
of  1850-1852  was  John  Winslow,  of  Newton.  It 
was  my  privilege  during  those  years  when  we  were 
fellow  law-students  at  Cambridge  to  listen  to  him, 
and  on  more  than  one  occasion  to  speak  with  him 
from  the  same  platform.  Indeed,  he  gave  me  my 
first  opportunity  of  the  kind  when  we  addressed  the 
people  of  his  village  at  the  Upper  Falls  in  that  town 
in  1850.  He  has  since  attained  a  high  place  in  his 
profession,  and  his  name  is  found  at  the  head  of  the 
best  enterprises  in  his  adopted  city  of  Brooklyn, 
where  at  present  he  is  president  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Society.     I  introduce  to  you  Mr.  Winslow. 

address   of   HON.  JOHN   WINSLOW,  OF  BROOKLYN,   N.  Y. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen,  —  This  is  a  charming 
commemoration  of  the  Free  Soil  epoch,  and  naturally  draws 
together  the  surviving,  serious,  thoughtful  veterans  who 
were  active  Free  Soilers  in  Massachusetts  in  1848.  I  am 
glad  to  be  with  you. 

The  Free  Soil  movement,  though  not  confined  to  Massa- 
chusetts, was  largely  supported  by  her  people.  As  we 
knew  it  in  Massachusetts,  we  may  recall  such  noble 
names  among  the  leaders  as  Palfrey  and  Wilson  and 
Sumner  and  Phillips  and  Jackson  and  Keyes  and  Burlin- 
game  and  Allen  and  Adams,  not  to  speak  of  the  living,  — 
names  that  will  be  respectfully  remembered  as  long  as  the 
history  of  liberty  shall  be  read  and  revered. 

It  is  difficult  to  refer  to  any  special  circumstance  or  in- 
cident that  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Free  Soil  party.  It 
was  called  into  existence  by  two  great  forces  that  came 
into  irrepressible  conflict.  On  the  one  side  was  slavery, 
aggressively   asserting  political  right  and  power  ;    on  the 


44  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

other  side  was  tliat  love  of  justice  and  freedom  which  God 
has  given  to  man.  The  history  of  the  great  fight  can 
be  traced  and  identified  by  the  opposition  of  tlie  Free 
Soilers  to  the  teachings  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  who  was  the 
able  defender  of  slavery  and  of  its  right  to  dominate  all 
public  policy  that  could  possibly  affect  or  impinge  upon  the 
barbarism  called  the  "  institution  of  slavery."  Calhoun 
believed  that  the  "  institution  "  could  not  live  if  Anti- 
slavery  ideas  and  agitation  were  not, suppressed.  Abraham 
Lincoln,  in  later  time,  said  the  same  thing  in  his  own  way, 
when  he  declared  the  country  could  not  remain  half  slave 
and  half  free. 

In  1828,  when  the  tariff  bill  was  pending  in  Congress, 
Calhoun,  as  the  leader  of  the  free-traders,  found  himself 
opposed  by  Van  Buren  and  Jackson.  Calhoun  was  deter- 
mined, as  he  said,  to  bring  the  protective  system  to  an 
end.  This  led  him  to  assert  the  sovereignty  of  the  States, 
and  he  was  soon  found  pushing  the  doctrine  to  extremes. 
He  invoked  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions  of 
1798-99,  and  expounded  the  doctrine  of  nullification, — 
the  right  of  each  State  to  prevent  within  her  limits  the 
enforcement  of  such  Acts  of  Congress  as  she  might  con- 
sider uncoilstitutional.  In  1828  Calhoun  set  forth  this  doc- 
trine in  an  elaborate  paper,  which  came  to  be  known  as 
the  "  South  Carolina  Exposition."  This  led  later  to  the 
famous  debate  in  the  Senate  between  Senator  Hayne,  of 
South  Carolina,  and  Daniel  Webster.  Here  let  me  say, 
Mr.  Chairman,  that  whatever  criticisms  may  be  justly  made 
upon  the  course  of  Mr,  Webster  in  his  later  years,  touching 
the  aggressions  of  the  slave  power,  the  great  principles 
he  advocated  in  that  masterly  speech  for  the  conservation 
of  Liberty  and  Union,  —  an  advocacy  that  has  not  its  equal 
in  the  annals  of  American  statesmanship  in  breadth  and 
depth  and  lucidity  of  statement,  —  were  the  principles  that 
inspired  our  people  in  the  final  struggle  vi  et  armis,  and 


ADDEESS    OF    HON.    JOHN    WINSLOW.  45 

gave  victory  for  the  Union  as  the  preserver  of  constitutional 
freedom. 

We  find  Callioun  struggling  to  stem  the  Antislavery 
tide  by  marshalling  the  State-sovereignty  theories  to  the 
defence  of  slavery.  One  of  his  measures  was  a  bill  in  the 
Senate,  subjecting  to  severe  penalties  any  postmaster  who 
should  knowingly  receive  and  put  into  the  mail  any  publi- 
cation or  picture  touching  the  subject  of  slavery,  to  go  into 
any  State  or  territory  in  which  the  circulation  of  such 
picture  or  publication  should  be  forbidden  by  the  State 
laws.  The  report  asserted  the  doctrine  that  the  States 
were  sovereign  as  to  one  another,  bound  together  only  by 
compact.  In  his  speech  Calhoun  made  an  alarming  state- 
ment of  the  numbers  and  zeal  of  the  Abolitionists,  and  of 
the  danger  of  their  discussions  and  principles  to  the  South. 
He  also  insisted  that  all  petitions  for  the  abolition  of  sla- 
very in  the  territories  and  the  District  of  Columbia  ought 
to  be  rejected  altogether,  because  Congress  had  no  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  subject.  This  denial  of  the  right  of  petition 
was  ably  and  stoutly  contested  by  John  Quincy  Adams  in 
the  House  on  many  occasions. 

In  a  letter  written  in  1847  to  a  member  of  the  Alabama 
legislature,  Mr.  Calhoun  declared  that  he  was  from  the  be- 
ginning in  favor  of  "  forcing,"  as  he  expressed  it,  the  slavery 
issue  on  the  North,  believing  that  delay  was  dangerous,  and 
that  the  South  was  relatively  stronger,  both  morally  and 
politically,  than  she  would  ever  be  again.  Calhoun  repeat- 
edly in  the  course  of  the  Senate  debates  declared  his  con- 
viction that  slavery  was  a  positive  "  political  and  social 
good."  He  said  that  Randolph  was  right  in  opposing  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  that  if  the  Southern  members 
had  acted  and  voted  in  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Randolph,  abolition 
might  have  been  crushed  forever  in  the  bud.  In  March, 
1844,  Tyler  called  Calhoun  to  his  cabinet  to  continue  a 
negotiation  begun  by  Upshur  for  the  annexation  of  Texas. 


46  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

Mr.  "Webster  had  been  ejected  from  the  office  of  Secretary 
of  State  to  make  a  vacancy  for  Upshur.  Upon  Upshur's 
death  Calhoun  renewed  the  effort. 

Mr.  Calhoun  combated  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  intro- 
duced resolutions  in  the  Senate  taking  extreme  ground  in 
denying  the  right  of  Congress  to  legislate  against  slavery 
in  the  territories.  Soon  after  General  Taylor's  election, 
Calhoun  called  together  some  eighty  Southern  members  of 
Congress,  and  as  chairman  of  a  committee  reported  an 
address,  which  was  signed  by  forty-eight  senators  and  rep- 
resentatives. It  denied  the  power  of  Congress  to  exclude 
slavery  from  California  and  the  other  new  territories,  and 
even  denied  the  power  of  the  legislature  or  the  inhabitants 
of  the  territories  to  exclude  it.  The  South  was  urged  to 
hold  no  connection  with  any  party  at  the  North  not  pre- 
pared to  enforce  the  Constitutional  guarantees  in  favor  of 
the  South.  Among  the  neglects  or  refusals  of  the  North 
to  do  this,  the  failure  to  enforce  the  old  fugitive-slave 
law  was  named  and  vehemently  denounced.  And  so  to 
the  end  of  his  life  Calhoun  was  the  defender  of  slavery  and 
of  its  political  claims  and  aggressions.  Most  of  the  politi- 
cal thought  in  the  Free  Soil  days,  whose  memories  we 
recall  with  so  much  interest  here  to-day,  turned  therefore 
upon  the  propositions  maintained  or  opposed  by  John  C. 
Calhoun  touching  the  great  barbarism. 

I  have  thus  given  you,  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen, 
some  of  the  reasons  for  my  view  that  the  history  of  the 
Free  Soil  controversy  is  largely  identified,  in  opposition, 
with  the  positions  taken  by  Calhoun  upon  the  great  issue. 
Calhoun  was  the  profound  thinker  of  the  South.  In  the 
Free  Soil  days  and  before,  Joshua  Leavitt,  the  able  editor, 
debater,  and  writer,  was  constantly  attacking  slavery,  and 
especially  the  positions  taken  by  Calhoun.  It  is  said  that 
Calhoun  pronounced  Mr.  Leavitt  to  be  the  ablest  and  most 
dangerous  adversary  of  slavery  in  the  country. 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.    JOHN    WINSLOW.  47 

In  the  year  1846,  when  the  breach  was  more  apparent 
than  before  in  Massachusetts  between  the  "  conscience  "  and 
the  "  cotton  "  Whigs,  the  former  had  hopes  that  both  Choate 
and  Webster  would  soon  become  identified  with  them.  In 
this  chapter  of  political  history  there  was  a  memorable  day 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  in  September,  when  I  was  present  as  a 
spectator,  and  which  may  properly  be  referred  to  here  as 
Olustrative  of  the  political  atmosphere  of  the  period.  The 
Whig  State  Convention  was  in  session,  and  many  leading 
men  of  both  sides  were  there.  The  contest  was  as  to  the 
platform,  whether  it  should  be  conservative  or  of  an  Anti- 
slavery  type.  Before  it  was  reported,  Sumner  made  a 
speech  of  great  power  and  eloquence  in  favor  of  aggressive 
action  against  the  usurpation  of  the  slave  power.  In  his 
speech  he  made  a  graceful  and  forcible  appeal  to  Mr. 
Webster,  saying  :  "  Dedicate,  sir,  the  golden  years  of  ex- 
perience which  are  yet  in  store  for  you  to  removing  from 
your  country  its  greatest  evil.  In  this  cause  you  shall  find 
inspirations  to  eloquence  higher  than  any  you  have  yet 
confessed."  Winthrop  was  then  called  out  and  made  an  able 
reply.  There  were  two  sets  of  resolutions  reported,  as  was 
expected.  Speeches  were  made  by  J.  Thomas  Stevenson 
and  Linus  Child  on  the  conservative  side,  and  by  Stephen 
C.  Phillips,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  and  Charles  Allen  on 
the  Antislavery  side.  The  debate  was  able,  attended  by 
much  excitement,  and  lasted  until  night.  The  conserva- 
tives became  alarmed,  and  decided  to  send  for  Webster. 
Joseph  Bell,  chairman  of  the  Whig  State  Central  Commit- 
tee, soon  appeared,  with  Webster  upon  his  arm,  amid  tre- 
mendous applause.  Both  "  conscience  "  and  "  cotton  " 
Whigs  joined  in  manifestations  of  respect.  As  Webster 
reached  the  rostrum,  the  applause  was  renewed  with  great 
vigor,  and  the  whole  scene  was  grand  and  inspiring. 
Webster  took  his  seat  and  listened  to  Charles  Allen,  one 
of  the  ablest  of  the  "  conscience  "  men,  who  resumed  and 


48  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

finished  a  stern  and  inflexible  speech.     Webster  then  rose, 
the   convention  rising  with  him,  and  in  a  short   address 
made  a  plea  of  great  power  for  harmony.     A  friend  tells 
me  that  Sumner  said  he  knew,  when  he  saw  "  Black  Dan  " 
coming,  it  was  all  up  with  his  side  that  year.     It  was  in 
this   speech   that   Webster's   famous   words    were   uttered 
which  have  been  so  widely  quoted.     He  had  been  speaking 
of  his  warm  attachment  to  the  Whig  party,  and  how  he 
loved  to  inhale  its  "  odor  of  liberty."     Then  followed  the 
memorable  words   spoken  in   his  grandest  and  most  im- 
pressive manner.     "  Others,"  he  said,  "  rely  on  other  foun- 
dations and  other  hopes  for  the  welfare  of  the  country  ; 
but  for  my  part,  in  the  dark  and  troubled  night  that  is  on 
us,  I  see  no  star  above  the  horizon  promising  light  to  guide 
us  but  the  intelligent,  patriotic,  united  Whig  party  of  the 
United  States."     At  this  moment  every  look  and  gesture 
of  the   orator   were   in   harmony   with   his   thought.     He 
seemed  to  speak  as  if  standing  in  a  dark  background,  his 
lustrous  eyes  looking  above  the  horizon  for  the  star  that 
should  give  the  promised  light  to  guide  the  convention  and 
the  people.     The  power  of  the  speech  and  the  spectacle  was 
seen  and  felt  in  the  fact  that  a  convention  of  turbulent  men, 
at  once  subdued,  were  ready  for  adjournment  without  fur- 
ther strife. 

In  Massachusetts  the  men  who  worked  together  as  Free 
Soilers  generally  co-operated  in  the  Coalition  movement 
that  brought  about  the  election  of  Governor  Boutwell,  in 
1851,  and  of  Senator  Sumner.  You  and  I,  sir,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, took  some  part,  as  young  men,  in  that  struggle  under 
the  direction  of  the  State  Committee.  We  addressed  the 
people  in  many  towns,  and  found  it  good  to  be  in  the  thick 
of  the  fight.  We  were  room-mates  at  Cambridge  Law 
School  at  the  time,  and  learned  in  that  experience  what  it 
was  to  meet  young  men  students  from  the  South,  who  dif- 
fered  from   us   on   the   great   subject,  and  who   seasoned 


ADDRESS    OF   HON.    JOHN    WINSLOW.  49 

their  expressions  of  dissent  with  that  peppery  condiment 
peculiar  to  the  Southern  temperament.  In  those  days  our 
Southern  friends  sincerely  believed  that  one  of  their  good 
men  would  prove  equal  to  any  three  of  ours  in  combat, 
and  in  that  spirit  they  argued  and  protested.  That  this 
spirit  was  somewhat  modified,  if  not  entirely  removed,  by 
the  battles  of  the  Civil  War  is  quite  likely  true. 

The  Free  Soilers  encountered  no  little  opposition  from 
many  of  the  elderly  men  holding  high  positions  in  the 
churches,  such  as  Rev.  Dr.  Nehemiah  Adams  and  Prof. 
Moses  Stuart.  As  illustrative  of  this,  let  me  tell  you  of  an 
interesting  incident  at  Andover,  then  largely  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Prof.  Moses  Stuart,  distinguished  for  his  stubborn 
conservatism  and  stiff  opposition  to  the  abolitionists,  as  the 
Free  Soilers  were  sometimes  called  when  disrespect  was 
intended. 

It  was  in  the  campaign  of  1848,  when  the  late  Richard 
H.  Dana  was  expected  to  address  the  Free  Soilers  one 
evening  in  a  village  church  at  Andover.  Many  of  us 
who  were  then  members  of  Phillips  Academy  attended, 
and  were  disappointed  at  the  non-arrival  of  the  distin- 
guished speaker.  There  was  a  large  audience,  including 
a  number  of  the  theological  students.  Professor  Stuart 
was  living  in  Andover  at  that  time,  and  continued  to 
maintain  his  aggressive  opposition  to  the  Free  Soil  move- 
ment. When  it  became  apparent  that  for  some  reason  Mr. 
Dana  would  not  be  with  us,  there  were  persistent  calls  upon 
several  of  the  "  theologs  "  to  speak  ;  but  none  could  be 
induced  to  respond.  Those  of  us  of  pronounced  Free  Soil 
views  were  inclined  to  think  that  the  gentlemen  thus  called 
upon  had  the  fear  of  the  mighty  Stuart  upon  them ;  at  any 
rate,  no  gentleman  of  the  seminary  would  speak.  It 
seemed  a  pity  to  send  the  audience  away  without  the 
desired  instruction,  and  the  boys  and  young  men  of  the 
academy  began  to  call  upon  such  of  their  number  as  were 

7 


50  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT   BOSTON. 

known  to  be  acceptable  speakers.  At  first  there  was  a 
modest  liesitancy  ;  and  to  get  the  ball  rolling  I  told  two 
of  onr  fellow-students,  the  late  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
York,  Hon.  William  Dorsheimer,  and  Mr.  John  K.  Valen- 
tine, who  for  many  years  has  held  the  office  of  United 
States  District  Attorney  in  Philadelphia,  that  if  they  would 
agree  to  speak,  I  would  lead  off.  You  may  imagine  the 
apparent  relief  of  the  audience  upon  our  appearance.  We 
got  along  pretty  well,  and  I  may  assure  you  we  did  not  spare 
the  enemy.  The  applause  was  tumultuous  and  hearty ; 
but  whether  tlie  people  most  liked  our  pluck  or  our  manner 
of  putting  things,  we  never  knew.  If  any  of  you  have  any 
knowledge  of  the  solemn,  earnest  nature  of  the  late  Rev. 
Sanmel  H.  Taylor,  the  principal  of  Phillips  Academy  at 
Andover  at  that  time,  you  will  not  be  surprised  to  hear 
that  the  next  morning,  when  he  found  us  hoarse,  and  not 
prepared  in  Greek  (his  favorite  study),  we  were  severally 
invited  "  to  remain  "  after  recitation.  He  expressed  grief 
at  our  conduct,  and  told  us  of  the  dangerous  influence^  of 
political  excitement  as  an  interruption  of  study.  I  took 
him  into  my  confidence  at  once,  and  told  him  we  agreed 
with  him  fully,  and  that  such  an  occasion  would  never  come 
again,  and  that  he  might  rest  in  peace.  It  never  did  come 
again  ;  but  we  enjoyed  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  we 
saved  and  possibly  instructed  the  meeting,  and  were  not 
deterred  in  our  performance  of  duty  by  the  presence  in 
the  town  of  the  learned  professor  whose  ponderous  influ- 
ence we  knew  was  against  the  Free  Soilers. 

Standing  here  to-day  in  this  presence,  I  look  back,  as  I 
know  you  do.  Gentlemen,  to  the  days  of  the  Free  Soil 
campaign  with  no  feeling  of  regret,  but  rather  of  joy,  that 
you  and  I  were  permitted  to  take  some  part  for  a  sacred 
cause  that  at  last  triumphed,  in  the  most  absolute  sense. 
We  resisted  the  encroachments  of  the  dominant  slave 
power,  and  have  lived  to  see  the  four  millions  of  slaves 


ADDRESS    OF    COL.    W.    S.    B.    HOPKINS.  51 

wlio  were  its  victims  become  freemen  ;  and  also  have 
lived  to  see,  as  a  necessary  sequence,  the  Constitution  so 
amended  as  to  be  in  fact  an  instrument  of  freedom  in  all 
our  land.  So  now  we  live,  in  a  truer  sense  than  before,  in 
the  "  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave." 

The  President:  Who  of  us  does  not  delight  to 
recall  Erastus  Hopkins,  of  Northampton,  his  attrac- 
tive presence  on  the  platform,  his  grace  and  power 
as  a  speaker,  and  his  continued  service  while  he 
lived  for  the  Antislavery  cause  ?  He  is  with  us  not 
only  in  memory,  but  in  the  person  of  his  son,  Col. 
W.  S.  B.  Hopkins,  to  whom  you  will  next  listen. 

ADDRESS   OF   COL.    W.    S.   B.    HOPKINS. 

Mr.  Chairman,  —  The  compliment  you  pay  to  my  dear 
father  by  including  me  among  the  survivors  of  the  Free 
Soil  party  of  1848,  recognizing  in  me  a  title  to  the  lionor 
by  right  of  representation,  is  very  kind  and  very  grateful  to 
me.  In  1848  I  was  an  enthusiastic  boy  politician  of  twelve 
years,  drinking  in  and  assimilating  with  my  developing 
nature  the  lofty  principles  that  were  then  brought  to  tlie 
front,  never  again  to  be  relegated  to  the  rear  in  the  minds 
and  consciences  of  the  American  people.  I  am  conscious 
how  deeply  the  lessons  of  that  day  became  seated  in  me, 
not  only  for  their  own  moral  and  political  importance,  but 
by  reason  of  earnest  parental  instruction,  met,  I  will  dare 
to  think,  by  a  proper  filial  reverence. 

Born  to  work  at  a  later  day,  I  nevertheless  was  in  some 
ways  so  associated  with  the  political  status  and  with  the 
growth  of  the  idea  of  the  non-extension  of  slavery  from 
1848  to  the  election  of  Lincoln,  that  to  me  as  well  as  to  some 
of  you  who  are  older  everything  political  which  has  occurred 
since  —  save  only  the  political  aspect  of  the  war  —  seems 


52  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

dwarfed  and  selfish  in  comparison.  Free  soil  in  all  the 
new  States  and  the  public  domain,  which  was  the  demand 
of  the  men  of  18-18,  was  achieved  in  the  election  of  Lincoln. 
The  step  beyond  that  —  free  soil  throughout  the  land  —  was 
the  consequence  of  the  slave-holders'  war.  The  re-estab- 
lishment of  a  lasting  and  giant  republic  on  the  firm  basis 
of  recognized  and  conceded  nationality  was  the  product  of 
all  three. 

You  who  are  here  to-day,  and  those  who  were  then  asso- 
ciated with  you  and  who  are  gone  to  rest,  were  the  pioneers 
in  this  great  political  revolution  which  washed  the  nation 
clean  from  her  disease,  and  gave  her  that  sturdy  health 
which  assures  a  vigorous  and  useful  life.  In  the  sequel 
there  have  been  times  when  some  have  become  heartsick 
and  distrustful,  as  early  leaders  often  do;  but  the  fruit  of 
the  seed  you  sowed  has  nourished  a  people  who,  however 
divided  into  parties  and  on  policy,  are  a  people  of  sublime 
faith,  marching  to  a  sublime  destiny. 

I  have  said  you  were  pioneers.  But  you  did  not,  like 
the  pushing  men  who  have  carried  the  flag  westward,  lay 
out  your  work  in  the  free  vi^ilds  where  you  had  an  unfet- 
tered sweep  and  unchallenged  control.  You  fought  your 
early  battles  surrounded  by  men  native  to  the  soil  as  well 
as  you,  in  whose  breasts  were  rooted  all  the  timid  conser- 
vatism, all  the  prejudice,  and  all  the  selfish  partisanship 
which  poor  weak  human  nature  draws  in  with  mother's 
milk,  and  develops  and  petrifies  by  custom.  Thus  you 
challenged,  received,  and  bravely  bore  contumely  and  sav- 
age attack  inflicted  by  neighbors  and  friends.  The  weapon 
of  ostracism  was  resorted  to,  and  personal  enmities,  for 
a  time  at  least,  sundered  established  ties  of  friendship. 
In  saying  this  I  am  not  citing  what  I  have  learned  in  po- 
litical history  only.  I  bear  personal  testimony  ;  for  when 
a  boy,  with  tingling  ears  I  heard  my  father  berated  in  a 
public  meeting  at   Northampton,  by  two   eminent   lawyers 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.    HORACE    E.    SMITH.  53 

up  to  that  moment  his  friends,  for  his  devotion  to  prin- 
ciple, in  language  suited  only  to  the  traitor  and  turncoat 
who  deserved  the  whipping-post  if  not  the  gallows. 

But  it  is  meet  that  these  trials  to  which  you  were  sub- 
jected should  be,  as  they  have  been,  nearly  forgotten  and 
quite  forgiven.  This  gracious  duty  has  been  the  easier  be- 
cause of  the  success  of  your  cause.  Persecution  could  not 
make  you  martyrs,  though  it  may  have  made  you  heroes. 
It  is  your  proud  prerogative  to  see  your  patient  persistence 
in  putting  principle  before  the  American  conscience  re- 
warded, not  with  the  martyr's  crown,  but,  thank  God !  with 
the  victor's  laurel.  Such  men  are  born  for  leaders  while 
they  live  ;  and  in  every  advance  of  the  great  cause  of  pro- 
gress since  their  first  stand  for  the  right,  the  men  of  1848 
have  led,  and  while  they  live  must  lead,  in  enlightened 
thought  and  high  purpose. 

Again  I  thank  you  for  the  privilege  of  drawing  new 
inspiration   from  this  re-union. 

The  Presidext  :  We  give  a  hearty  welcome  to 
Horace  E.  Smith,  now  Dean  of  the  Law  School  at 
Albany,  N.  Y.,  who  in  Free  Soil  days  was  living  in 
Chelsea  in  this  State,  the  partner  of  Henry  B.  Stan- 
ton, and  who,  in  association  with  Mr.  Bird,  was  one 
of  the  managers  of  "The  Free  Soiler,"  our  cam- 
paign paper  in  1851. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  HORACE  E.  SMITH. 

Mr.  Chairman,  —  I  came  here  to  listen  and  enjoy,  not 
to  speak  ;  and  I  feel  now  that  my  silence  would  contribute 
more  to  the  pleasure  of  the  company  than  my  speech.  I 
should  continue  to  decline  your  kind  and  repeated  invitation 
to  say  a  few  words,  but  for  the  fear  that  my  silence  might 
be  mistaken  for  indifference.     No  language  at  my  command 


64  FEEE    SOIL   REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

is  adequate  to  express  my  interest  in  this  reunion.  When 
I  look  around  upon  men  who  were  prominent  in  the  move- 
ment which  we  here  commemorate,  the  animus,  action,  and 
scope  of  which  liave  been  so  eloquently  portrayed  in  the 
speeches  to  which  we  have  listened,  and  memories  of  the 
stirring  events  that  ensued  spring  up  within  me,  I  seem  to 
hear  a  voice  saying,  "  Put  off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet; 
for  tlie  place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground." 

You  have  intimated,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  no  minor  strain 
should  mingle  in  our  communion  and  congratulations  on 
this  occasion.  I  cannot,  however,  forbear  a  passing  refer- 
ence to  distinguished  leaders  in  the  struggle  for  Free  Soil 
who  have  passed  beyond  the  river,  and  whose  familiar  faces 
■we  miss  in  this  gathering.  We  who  are  "  alive  and  remain 
unto  this  day  "  cherish  their  memory  with  deep  tenderness 
and  great  respect.  With  but  a  slight  change  in  a  passage 
of  sacred  Scripture,  we  might  appropriately  apply  to  them 
the  beatitude,  "  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  cause 
of  freedom  from  henceforth  :  Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that 
they  may  rest  from  their  labors  ;  and  their  works  do  follow 
t^em." 

These  men,  our  fallen  comrades,  do  rest  from  their  ear- 
nest, self-sacrificing  labors  ;  and  their  noble  works  do  follow 
them  in  a  rich  harvest  of  blessings.  As  I  was  compar- 
atively young  when  the  Free  Soil  party  was  organized,  and 
inconspicuous  in  the  early  struggle  against  the  extension  of 
slavery,  I  think  I  may  say  without  any  violation  of  propri- 
ety that  in  my  judgment  we  are  indebted  to  the  ability, 
devotion,  and  firmness  of  the  Free  Soilers  for  the  integrity 
of  the  Federal  Union  and  the  blessings  of  freedom  enjoyed 
by  a  great  and  prosperous  nation.  The  priceless  treasure 
of  a  free  nation  with  a  republican  government,  secured  and 
established  by  our  fathers,  and  defended,  cemented,  and 
strengthened  by  their  children,  we  may  now  reasonably 
hope  to  transmit  unimpaired  to  future  generations.     We 


ADDRESS    OF    HORACE    E.    SMITH.  55 

have  listened  with  much  pleasure  to  a  speech  from  the  son 
of  that  noble  man  and  eminent  leader  Erastus  Hopkins, 
whom  I  well  knew,  and  to  whose  marked  ability  and  single- 
ness of  purpose  I  take  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony.  Re- 
ferring to  the  early  Antislavery  movement,  the  speaker  said 
in  substance  that  the  men  of  that  day  were  born  for  the 
struggle.  This  reminded  me  of  an  incident  in  General 
Grant's  tour  around  the  world,  which  may  be  familiar  to 
all  present.  While  in  Pekin,  on  the  occasion  of  a  demon- 
stration by  the  Government  in  his  honor,  the  premier 
essayed  to  address  him  in  English  ;  and  wishing  to  com- 
pliment the  General  with  the  original  remark  that  he  was 
"  born  to  command,"  expressed  himself  thus  :  "  Sire,  great 
generale,  you  vas  made  to  order."  I  think,  Mr.  Chairman, 
that  the  leaders  in  the  Free  Soil  party  were  "  made  to 
order." 

I  will  only  add  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  gratifying  re- 
flections of  my  life  that  I  was  permitted  to  bear  an  humble 
part  in  the  great  struggle  for  freedom  and  human  rights 
which  we  to-day  so  auspiciously  commemorate.  By  this 
communion  I  feel  stronger  for  whatever  remains  to  me  of 
duty  in  the  future. 

Thanking  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  your  courtesy,  and  ex- 
pressing my  gratitude  for  the  privilege  of  enjoying  this 
intensely  interesting  occasion,  I  will  say  farewell. 

The  President  :  The  Free  Soil  party  of  Massa- 
chusetts found  its  greatest  strength,  in  1848,  in  the 
sturdy  patriotism  of  the  city  and  county  of  Wor- 
cester, under  the  leadership  of  Charles  Allen.  The 
Whig  party  in  that  section,  until  that  time  its  strong- 
hold, was  reduced  to  a  hopeless  minority.  We  have 
with  us  several  gentlemen  who  did  good  service 
there,  and  they  will  address  you,  —  John  C.  Wyman, 


56        FREE  SOIL  EEUNION  AT  BOSTON. 

now  of  Valley  Falls,  R.  I. ;  Thomas  Drew,  now  of 
Newton  ;  and  Albert  Tolman  and  Henry  H. 
Chamberlain,  then,  as  now,  citizens  of  Worcester. 

ADDRESS   OF  JOHN   C.    WYMAN. 

Mr.  President,  —  I  feel  that  it  is  good  to  be  here  ;  but 
I  am  surprised  at  being  called  upon  at  this  time,  and  I  can 
truly  say  that  I  am  as  unprepared  as  I  am  surprised.  There 
are  so  many  about  me  who  were  influential  and  distin- 
guished in  the  inauguration  of  that  great  political  revolu- 
tion known  as  the  Free  Soil  movemeTiit,  who  have  not 
yet  spoken,  that  it  seems  to  me  it  would  be  a  much  wiser 
disposition  of  the  time  to  have  them  improve  it,  since  I 
can  merely  occupy  it. 

I  confess,  sir,  that  while  I  distinctly  remember  that  I 
was  one  of  the  young  men  in  Worcester,  in  1848,  who  were 
somewhat  active  in  politics,  and  in  hearty  sympathy  with 
the  bold  and  courageous  action  of  our  delegate,  Hon. 
Charles  Allen,  to  the  Whig  National  Convention,  in  repu- 
diating the  nominations  and  the  platform  of  the  party, 
I  have  forgotten  many  of  the  details.  I  am  indebted  to 
my  friend  Thomas  Drew,  one  of  the  veterans  of  the  Wor- 
cester press,  who  was  even  then  in  active  service,  for  the 
information  that  I  was  one  of  a  committee  of  twenty- 
six,  chosen  at  a  meeting  of  Free  Soilers  in  Worcester, 
to  make  arrangements  for  the  great  mass  convention  in 
that  city,  June  28,  1848,  the  fortieth  anniversary  of 
which  we  commemorate  to-day.  In  looking  over  the  list 
which  my  friend  has  shown  me,  I  am  reminded  how  ruth- 
less and  relentless  is  the  scythe  of  Time.  Of  the  whole 
number  only  ten  survive  ;  and  as  evidence  of  the  tena- 
cious fidelity  with  which  the  old  Free  Soiler  clings  to 
principle,  and  cherishes  the  precious  memories  of  that 
grand  uprising  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts  forty  years 


,      ADDRESS    OF   JOHN    C.    WYMAN.  57 

asro,  I  wish  to  state  that  four  of  the  ten  —  Messrs.  Albert 
Tolman,  George  W.  Russell,  William  A.  Wallace,  and 
mj^self  —  are  here  to-day. 

No  one  unfamiliar  with  the  conditions  then  existing  in 
the  politics  of  the  time  can  realize  the  magnitude  —  nay, 
the  hopelessness  —  of  the  task  which  the  Free  Soilers  of 
that  day  assumed.  There  was  intense  excitement  all  over 
the  land.  Texas  had  been  annexed,  new  territories  were 
soon  to  be  organized  and  admitted  into  the  Union  as 
States,  and  the  slaveholders  had  boldly  avowed  their  pur- 
pose to  make  of  them  slave  States.  Here  and  there  a 
protesting  voice  was  heard  from  men  of  both  the  great 
political  parties  ;  but  the  leaders  of  opinion  were  timid  and 
compromising,  fearing  to  lose  electoral  votes  in  the  South 
if  a  decided  stand  should  be  taken  to  thwart  the  designs 
of  the  slave  power.  Thus  it  happened  that  the  Whig  na- 
tional convention  nominated  General  Taylor  for  the  presi- 
dency, who  was  a  large  slaveholder  ;  and  a  few  weeks 
later  the  Democrats  nominated  General  Cass,  whose  views 
upon  the  slavery  question  were  considered  not  unfriendly 
to  the  South. 

In  the  Whig  convention  at  which  General  Taylor  was 
nominated,  an  effort  was  made  to  secure  a  plank  in  the 
platform  providing  that  slavery  should  be  prohibited  in 
the  territories  ;  but  it  was  derisively  hooted  down.  Then 
it  was  that  Judge  Allen  came  forward,  and  in  behalf  of  his 
constituents  threw  down  the  gauntlet  of  defiance.  His 
action  was  bravely  seconded,  as  you  know,  by  Henry 
Wilson.  They  came  home,  and  in  the  old  town  hall  of 
Worcester  Judge  Allen  gave  an  account  of  his  stewardship. 
It  was  a  magnificent  meeting,  —  one  which  those  present 
will  never  forget,  for  it  was  plainly  evident  that  the  people 
approved  his  conduct  and  would  heartily  sustain  him.  Most 
fortunate  it  was  for  us  and  for  the  cause  of  freedom  that 
we  had  for  a  leader  a  man  of  such  unwavering  fidelity, 

8 


58  FREE    SOIL   REUNION"   AT    BOSTON. 

such  persistent  courage,  and  such  matchless  ability  as  ad- 
vocate and  orator.  In  eloquent  and  scathing  terms  he 
showed  the  cowardice  and  treachery  of  the  leaders  of  both 
parties,  especially  his  own.  He  portrayed  the  disasters 
that  would  befall  the  republic  if  the  schemes  of  the  slave 
power,  as  already  developed,  were  not  thwarted  at  once; 
and  he  appealed  to  his  fellow-citizens  to  stand  steadfast  for 
the  right,  as  their  forefathers  had  done.  The  heart  of  that 
great  county  was  thrilled  by  his  appeal,  and  the  response 
of  the  people  came  in  a  unanimous  resolve  to  labor  early 
and  late  in  support  of  "  Freedom,  Free  Soil,  Free  Speech, 
a  Free  Press,  and  a  Free  Land."  Thus  did  the  great 
work  begin. 

The  lesson  taught  by  the  example  of  Judge  Allen,  Mr. 
Sumner,  Mr.  Wilson,  Stephen  C.  Phillips,  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  J.  G.  Palfrey,  F.  W.  Bird,  Horace  Mann,  Dr. 
S.  G.  Howe,  and  all  the  others  who  were  active  in  the 
great  movement  in  those  eventful  days,  is,  I  think,  that 
fearless  fidelity  to  principle  always  finds  its  reward  in  ul- 
timate success.  These  men  sought  not  and  cared  not  for 
office.  Freedom,  as  a  principle  and  a  right,  not  as  a  privi- 
lege, was  the  demand  they  made  upon  the  conscience  of  the 
country ;  and  how  grand  has  been  the  result !  Some  of 
them  did  not  live  to  see  the  fruition  of  their  hopes ;  but 
we  who  are  here  to-day  can  bear  grateful  testimony  to  the 
purity  of  their  motives  and  the  grandeur  of  the  results  of 
their  actions. 

Emerson  has  somewhere  said  that  "  the  standard  of 
civilization  is  not  determined  by  the  census,  by  the  large 
cities,  nor  by  the  crops,  but  by  the  men  which  a  country 
produces."  Measured  in  this  way,  who  can  estimate  the 
value  of  the  work  begun  by  the  men  who  were  founders  of 
the  Free  Soil  party  ?  They  saw  the  country  dominated  by 
the  slave  power,  holding  four  million  human  beings  as 
chattels,  and  eager  to  strengthen,  enlarge,  and  perpetuate 


ADDRESS    OF  JOHN    C.    WYMAN.  69 

that  domination  by  any  methods,  even  to  the  destruction  of 
all  the  ancient  landmarks,  and  the  subversion  of  all  the 
principles  of  civil  liberty  upon  which  the  government  was 
founded.  Behold  the  result !  Within  the  boundaries  of  the 
republic  there  exists  not  a  single  slave  ;  and  even  the  de- 
sire to  possess  one  has  ceased  forever  among  our  brethren 
of  the  South.  The  Mason  and  Dixon  line  has  lost  its  old 
significance  as  a  boundary  between  Slavery  and  Freedom. 
The  vast  territories  of  the  West  and  Southwest,  then  in 
dispute,  have  become  sovereign  States,  and  are  already 
dotted  all  over  with  towns  and  cities  where  race  distinc- 
tions are  not  recognized  and  all  are  equal  before  the  law. 

Surely,  we  old  Free  Soilers,  in  reviewing  the  past  and 
contrasting  what  was  with  what  is,  cannot  fail  on  an  occa- 
sion like  this  to  find  ourselves  in  full  sympathy  with 
Whittier's  beautiful  lines,  — 

"  Yet  who,  thus  looking  backward  o'er  his  years, 
Feels  not  his  eyelids  wet  with  grateful  tears, 

If  he  hath  been 
Permitted,  weak  and  sinful  as  he  was. 
To  cheer  and  aid,  in  some  ennobling  cause, 

His  fellow-men  ?  " 

Mr.  Thomas  Drew  of  Newton  was  introduced 
as  the  only  survivor  of  the  Free  Soil  editors  of 
Massachusetts  in  1848.  He  was  associate  editor 
with  Elihu  Burritt  (the  Learned  Blacksmith)  of  the 
"  Christian  Citizen  "  at  the  time  the  convention  was 
held ;  and  from  1849  to  1859  he  was  also  one 
of  the  editors  and  proprietors  of  the  Worcester 
Daily  and  Weekly  "  Spy,"  whose  senior  editor,  John 
Milton  Earle,  did  faithful  work  for  the  Antislavery 
cause  many  years  before  the  Free  Soil  party  was 
organized. 


60        FREE  SOIL  KEUNION  AT  BOSTON. 

In  responding,  Mr.  Drew  prefaced  his  remarks  as 
follows :  — 

ADDRESS  OF  THOMAS  DREW. 

In  one  of  tlie  fables  of  -^sop  we  are  told  that  upon  the 
defeat  of  an  army  in  battle  a  trumpeter  was  taken  prisoner. 
The  soldiers  were  about  to  put  him  to  death  when  he  said, 
"Nay!  gentlemen,  why  should  you  kill  me?  This  hand 
of  mine  is  guiltless  of  a  single  life."  "  Yes,"  replied  the 
soldiers,  "  but  with  that  brazen  instrument  of  yours  you 
incite  others,  and  must  share  the  same  fate."  I  can  give 
both  the  fable  and  its  moral  a  personal  application ;  for  it 
was  my  good  fortune  to  act  the  part  of  trumpeter  to  the 
gathering  hosts  of  freedom,  with  an  instrument  which  if 
less  brazen  than  the  one  used  by  ^sop's  trumpeter  was 
not  less  efficient,  and  perhaps  better  suited  to  the  times ; 
namely,  the  printing  press. 

To  illustrate  his  position  in  aid  of  the  cause  whose 
grand  success  they  had  met  to  celebrate,  Mr.  Drew 
read  the  closing  paragraph  of  an  editorial  from 
the  "  Christian  Citizen"  of  June  24,  1848,  written 
by  himself  in  the  absence  of  the  editor-in-chief 
Elihu  Burritt,  who  was  in  Europe.  He  said  that 
the  "  Call "  for  the  first  Free  Soil  State  Convention 
in  Massachusetts  did  not  seem  to  him,  at  the  time, 
quite  forcible  enough  for  the  occasion ;  and  in  giv- 
ing it  gratuitous  insertion  in  the  "  Citizen,"  he 
supplemented  it  as  follows  :  — 


ADDRESS  OF  THOMAS  DEEW.  61 

Come,  then,  men  of  New  England,  to  the  rescue  !     Come 
from  the  dense  rich  forests  and  fertile  river-sides  of  Maine  ! 
Come,  ye  stalwart  dwellers  among  the  granite  ridges  of 
New  Hampshire,  and  ye  who  breathe  the  pure  air  of  free- 
dom in  Vermont !     Come,  ye  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island  !     Leave  for  a  time  your  workshops  and  your  fields, 
your  spindles  and  your  looms,  and  unite  with  the  men  of 
Massachusetts,  who  are  rallying  from  every  section  of  the 
State  to  make  an  effort  for  freedom  worthy  of  her  cause. 
Come  !  for  you  will  hear  words  of  wisdom  that  will  make 
you  strong.     You  can  listen  to  the  eloquence  of  him  who 
in  the  First  Congress  was  the  most  powerful  advocate  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  speaking  in   his  grand- 
child's voice.     You  will  hear,  too,  the   burning  words   of 
him  who  upon  the  anniversary  of  the  nation's  birth  first 
ventured  to  point  to  the  people  a  truer  meed  of  glory  than 
that  which  comes  from  successful  conquests  and  deeds  of 
blood.     You  will  hear,  too,  from  the  man  who  was  kicked 
out  of  South  Carolina  by  that  sovereign  State  for  making 
the  simple  demand  for  a  trial  by  jury  for  our  own  citizens, 
when  unjustly  and  unconstitutionally  confined  in  the  prisons 
of  Charleston  for  no  other  crime  than  the  color  of  their 
skins.     Others,  too,  of  the  great  and  good  will  be  present 
to  address  you  upon  the  need  of  resistance  to  the  exactions 
of  the  slave  power.     Let  there  be  no  lack  of  numbers  or 
enthusiasm  ;  and  let  the  voice  of  New  England  echo  back 
the  swelling  notes  of  freedom  that  are  borne  to  us  upon 
every  western  breeze  from  great  meetings  of  the  people,  to 
give  the  world  assurance  that  although  their  leaders  have 
betrayed  them,  the  people  still  scorn  to  be  slaves! 


62  FREE    SOIL   REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 


ADDRESS  OF   HENRY   H.    CHAMBERLAIN. 

Mr.  President, — The  few  remarks  which  I  shall  ofier  on 
this  occasion  will  be  confined  to  some  recollections  of  the 
first  Free  Soil  movement  in  Worcester,  and  of  Hon.  Charles 
Allen's  connection  therewith. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  eighth  representative 
district  of  Massachnsetts  chose  as  delegate  to  the  Whig 
convention  in  Philadelphia  in  1848  the  Hon.  Charles 
Allen.  He  went  there  expecting  that  Mr.  Webster  would 
be  the  nominee  of  the  party  as  candidate  for  the  presidency  ; 
but  hardly  had  he  arrived  when  he  learned  to  his  dismay 
and  indignation  that  the  nomination  of  General  Taylor  had 
been  agreed  upon,  and  that  the  North  was  to  be  appeased 
by  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Abbott  Lawrence  for  the  vice- 
presidency. 

Mr.  Allen,  thus  early  informed  of  this  arrangement,  was 
prepared  to  meet  it ;  and  when  the  nomination  was  con- 
firmed by  vote  of  the  convention  on  the  third  ballot,  he 
arose  in  his  place  and  denounced  the  proceedings,  saying, 
"  As  the  Whig  party  of  the  North  are  not  to  be  allowed  to 
fill  with  their  statesmen  any  offices  of  trust,  therefore  we  de- 
clare the  Whig  party  of  the  Union  is  this  day  dissolved." 
He  further  said  that  "  he  would  not  be  bound  by  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  convention ;  "  and  amid  cries  of  "  turn  him 
out,"  "  sit  down,"  etc.,  he  foretold  that  Massachusetts 
would  "  spurn  the  bribe,"  and  turning  his  back  on  the  as- 
sembly he  left  the  hall  to  return  no  more. 

When  the  news  of  Mr.  Allen's  course  reached  Worcester 
there  was  great  commotion  among  his  constituents,  and 
curses  loud  and  deep  were  hurled  upon  his  devoted  head. 
Notwithstanding  all  the  objurgations  cast  upon  Mr.  Allen, 
there  were  a  few  persons  who  quietly  expressed  their  ap- 
probation of  his  course ;  and  it  was  agreed  that  I  should 


ADDRESS  OF  HENRY  H.  CHAMBERLAIN.     63 

see  him  upon  his  arrival  home  and  ask  him  to  address  his 
constituents.  I  accordingly  did  so.  He  replied,  "  If  you 
think  there  will  be  any  persons  to  hear  me,  I  will  gladly 
address  them.  Who  will  come  to  the  meeting  ?  I  don't 
care  to  speak  to  empty  benches ;  but  if  you  think  we  can 
fill  a  small  hall,  I  will  go  and  speak."  The  next  day  we 
began  to  hear  of  a  few  persons  who  were  favorably  in- 
clined, and  w^ould  go  to  hear  him,  and  we  decided  that  it 
was  safe  to  hire  a  "  small  hall "  and  advertise  that  Mr. 
Allen  would  address  his  constituents.  On  the  following 
day  we  found  "  the  woods  were  full  of  them,"  and  we 
were  encouraged  to  engage  the  largest  hall  in  town,  to 
notify  Mr.  Allen  of  what  we  had  done,  and  to  call  a  public 
meeting. 

The  hour  for  the  meeting  having  arrived,  the  self-ap- 
pointed managers  assembled  at  the  hall  to  find  it  crowded 
to  its  fullest  capacity  ;  even  the  windows  were  filled,  and 
every  "  coign  of  vantage  "  was  occupied.  The  meeting  was 
called  to  order  by  Mr.  Oliver  Harrington,  and  Mr.  Albert 
Tolman  was  chosen  to  preside,  while  I  was  despatched  to 
escort  Mr.  Allen  to  the  hall.  By  much  crowding  we 
were  enabled  to  reach  the  platform,  where  he  was  intro- 
duced to  the  assembly,  and  made  that  great  speech  which 
proved  to  be  the  death-knell  of  the  Whig  party  in  Massa- 
chusetts. In  the  course  of  his  speech  Mr.  Allen  made  this 
statement :  "  When  I  said  the  Whig  party  was  dissolved, 
I  but  declared  a  fact.  It  is  dead.  The  undertakers  may 
preserve  its  corpse  for  a  little  while,  but  it  will  soon  be- 
come offensive  lo  the  smell  and  the  sight,  and  must  be 
removed  from  the  sight  of  the  people."  At  the  close  of 
Mr.  Allen's  speech,  Hon.  Henry  Wilson,  who  was  in  the 
hall,  made  a  short  address,  after  which  appropriate  resolu- 
tions were  passed. 

Just  as  the  assembly  were  about  to  retire,  Rev.  George 
Allen  appeared  on  the  platform,  and  offered  the  following 


64  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

resolution,  which  was  received  with  great  enthusiasm  and 
unanimously  adopted :  — 

'"'' Resolved^  That  Massachusetts  wears  no  chains  and 
spurns  all  bribes  ;  that  Massachusetts  goes  now  and  will 
ever  go  for  Free  Soil  and  Free  Men,  for  Free  Lips  and  a 
Free  Press,  for  a  Free  Land  and  a  Free  World." 

The  President  :  There  is  a  time  for  all  things, 
and  the  time  has  now  come  to  bring  this  commemo- 
rative occasion  to  a  close.  It  has  been  to  all  of 
us,  I  trust,  one  of  glad  reunion  and  of  pleasant 
memories. 

Several  gentlemen  having  expressed  a  desire  that 
a  report  of  the  proceedings  should  be  published  in 
pamphlet  form,  the  matter  was  referred  with  full 
powers  to  a  committee  consisting  of  Hon.  Milo 
Hildreth  of  Northborough,  John  A.  Nowell  of 
Boston,  and  Henry  0.  Hildreth  of  Dedham.  The 
subject  of  calling  future  reunions  of  the  Free  Soilers 
of  Massachusetts  was  also  referred  to  the  same 
committee. 

On  motion  of  Hon.  Stephen  H.  Phillips,  of  Salem, 
a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  presiding  officer  was  unani- 
mously passed,  and  at  six  o'clock  the  meeting  was 
dissolved. 


appe:n^dix. 


Caleb  A.  Wall,  for  years  connected  with  the  "  Worcester 
Spy,"  and  an  active  participant  in  the  stirring  scenes  of 
1848,  liad  prepared  a  speech  giving  interesting  reminis- 
cences concerning  tlie  early  meetings  held  at  Worcester, 
which  was  crowded  out  of  the  proceedings  by  want  of  time. 
The  following  abstract  from  Mr.  Wall's  speech  will  be 
read  with  interest :  — 

EEMARKS   OF    CALEB   A.    WALL. 

Soon  after  the  "Whig  and  Democratic  Presidential  nominations 
of  1848  became  known,  six  or  seven  persons  in  Worcester,  five  of 
whom  are  present  at  this  gathering  to-day,  —  Albert  Tolman, 
Henry  H.  Chamberlain,  George  W.  Russell,  John  C.  Wyman,  and 
William  A.  Wallace, — well  representing  the  dominant  political 
feeling  of  the  time  there  in  reference  to  those  nominations,  were 
specially  instrumental  in  organizing  that  sentiment  into  action  ;  and 
it  found  its  first  public  expression  in  a  meeting  at  the  City  Hall, 
Wednesday  evening,  June  21,  at  which  Mr.  Tolman  presided,  and 
Mr.  Wallace,  then  foreman  in  the  "  Spy  "  office,  was  Secretary. 
The  full  proceedings  of  this  meeting,  including  the  masterly  two 
hours'  speech  of  Judge  Allen,  are  contained  in  the  '*  Daily  Spy  "  of 
June  23,  1848. 

At  this  meeting,  which  was  called  to  hear  Judge  Allen  and  to 
take  the  initiatory  steps  for  the  organization  of  the  new  party,  a 
committee  of  twenty-six  well  known  citizens  of  Worcester  —  ten 
of  whom  are  now  living,  and  five  of  the  number  are  present  at 
this  Reunion  —  was  chosen  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements 

9 


66  FKEE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

for  the  holding  of  the  first  Free  Soil  State  Convention  at  the  same 
place,  the  following  week,  June  28,  1848,  when  the  party  was  for- 
mally organized.  The  ten  persons  of  this  committee  of  arrange- 
ments now  living  are  Albert  Tolman,  Henry  H.  Chamberlain, 
James  F.  Allen,  John  C.  Newton,  Benjamin  E.  Hutchinson, 
Peregrine  B.  Gilbert,  Samuel  Davis,  and  Thomas  A.  Clark,  all 
still  of  AYorcester  ;  John  C.  Wyman  of  Khode  Island,  and  William 
A.  Wallace  of  East  Canaan,  N.  H.  The  members  of  this  com- 
mittee who  have  deceased  were  Charles  Allen,  Alexander  DeWitt, 
Charles  Washburn,  Oliver  Harrington,  Rufus  D.  Dunbar,  Edward 
Hamilton,  P^dward  H.  Hemenway,  Joseph  Boyden,  Enoch  Hall, 
Dr.  H.  G.  Dai-ling,  Joseph  A.  Gilbert,  Albert  P.  Ware,  Charles 
Hadwen,  Augustus  Tucker,  and  Edward  Southwick. 

General   Wilson,  coming  in  while    Judge  Allen  was  speaking, 
was  greeted  with  enthusiastic  applause,  and  followed  the  Judge  in 
remarks  in  support  of  their  course.     After  the  regular  resolutions 
of  the    meeting   sustaining   their    action    had   been   reported  and 
adopted.   Rev.   George   Allen,  a  brother  of  the  Judge,  who  had 
been   detained  by  his    duties  as  Chaplain  at  the  State  Hospital, 
came  in,  and  offered  impromptu  that  remarkable  resolution  which 
afterwards    became    so   famous.     "  Resolved,  That    Massachusetts 
wears  no  chains  and   spurns  all  bribes ;  that  Massachusetts  goes 
now,  and  will  ever  go,  for  free  soil  and  free  men,  for  free  lips  and 
a  free  press,  for  a  free  land  and  a  free  world."     This  sentiment 
was  received  with  so  much    favor    that  the  author  of  it  was  re- 
quested to  commit  it  to  writing,  which  he  did,  after  which  it  was 
adopted  with  unbounded  enthusiasm,  and  subsequently  passed  at 
various  meetings  and  conventions  during  that  campaign,  including 
the  Massachusetts  State  Convention  held  the  following^   week  at 
the  same  place ;  the  main  sentiment  of  the  resolution  was  incor- 
porated in  the    platform  of   the   National    Free   Soil   Convention 
held   in    August  following  at   Buffalo,  where  Martin  Van  Buren 
and  Charles  Francis   Adams  were  nominated    for  President  and 
Vice-President   of  the    United    States,  and    its    leading    doctrine, 
embodied  in   every  subsequent  national  Republican  platform,  has 
since  become  a  part  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

At  the  State  convention  of  June  28,  at  the  Worcester  City 
Hall,  where  the  Free  Soil  party  was  ushered  into  existence  in  due 
form,  all    sections  of   the  Commonwealth  were   represented,  and 


APPENDIX.  67 

large  numbers  were  also  present  from  other  States,  filling  the  hall 
at  an  early  hour  to  its  utmost  Capacity.  The  convention  was 
called  to  order  at  10  a.  m.  by  Hon.  Alexander  DeWitt  of  Oxford, 
and  organized  temporarily  by  the  choice  of  Hon.  S.  F.  Lyman  of 
Northampton  as  chairman,  and  William  S.  Robinson  [Warrington] 
of  Lowell  as  Secretary.  A  committee  consisting  of  Edward  L. 
Keyes  of  Dedham,  John  S.  Eldridge  of  Boston,  William  Bassett 
of  Lynn,  H.  G.  Blaisdell  of  Lawrence,  J.  W.  Brown  of  Framing- 
ham,  Augustus  Tucker  of  AYorcester,  William  H.  Stoddard  of 
Northampton,  and  John  H.  Morse  of  Sherburne,  was  then  chosen 
to  nominate  a  list  of  permanent  officers  of  the  convention,  which 
they  did,  as  follows,  and  these  were  unanimously  elected :  Presi- 
dent, Hon.  Samuel  Hoar  of  Concord ;  Vice  Presidents,  Alanson 
Hamilton  of  West  Brookfield,  Hon.  Joseph  L.  Richardson  of 
INIedway,  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe  of  Boston,  John  Wells  of  Chicopee, 
Joseph  Stevens  of  Warwick,  Richard  P.  Waters  of  Salem ;  Sec- 
retaries, William  S.  Robinson  of  Lowell,  William  A.  Wallace 
of  Worcester,  Allen  Shepard  of  Ashland,  William  A.  Arnold  of 
Northampton. 

The  proceedings  were  opened  with  prayer  by  Rev.  George  P. 
Smith,  then  pastor  of  the  Old  South  Church.  On  taking  the 
chair,  the  President,  Hon.  Samuel  Hoar,  was  greeted  with  great 
applause,  reference  at  his  introduction  to  the  vast  audience  being 
made  to  his  treatment  by  the  ollJcials  of  South  Carolina,  while 
there  as  the  agent  of  Massachusetts  for  the  protection  of  colored 
citizens  from  this  State  who  had  been  outrageously  deprived  of 
their  Constitutional  rights  while  in  South  Carolina  on  leaitimate 
business.  After  remarks  from  the  Chair,  on  motion  of  Hon. 
Stephen  C.  Phillips  of  Salem,  a  committee  to  draft  an  address  and 
resolutions  was  chosen,  consisting  of  Stephen  C.  Phillips,  Erastus 
Hopkins  of  Northampton,  Daniel  W.  Alvord  of  Greenfield,  Mil- 
ton M.  Fisher  of  Medway,  Allen  Bangs  of  Springfield,  William 
B.  Spooner  of  Boston,  John  Milton  Earle  of  Worcester,  and  E, 
Rockwood  Hoar  of  Concord.  On  motion  of  Samuel  F.  Lyman  of 
Northampton,  a  committee  to  nominate  a  State  Central  Committee 
was  chosen,  consisting  of  S.  F.  Lyman,  Alexander  DeWitt,  E.  R. 
Hoar,  F.  W.  Bird  of  Walpole,  Albert  Tolman  of  Worcester,  and 
Ebenezer  Lamson  of  Shelburne ;  and  this  committee  subsequently 
reported  the  names  of  the  following  gentlemen,  who  were  unani- 


68  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

mously  elected  as  State  Central  Committee,  to  have  charp;e  of  the 
State  campaijrii  work,  —  Hon.  Charles  P'rancis  Adams  and  George 
Is'ewcomb  of  Quincy,  S.  F.  Lyman  of  Northampton,  Dr.  Caleb 
Swan  of  Easton,  Allen  Bangs  of  Springfield,  Henry  Wilson  of 
Natick,  Edward  L.  Keyes  of  Dedham,  Milton  M.  Fisher  and  John 
P.  Jones  of  Med  way,  George  Minot  of  Reading,  William  Bassett 
of  Lynn,  Freeman  Walker  of  North  Brookfield,  Alexander  De- 
Witt  of  Oxford,  and  Henry  T.  Parker  of  Boston.  This  committee 
organized  for  subsequent  action  by  the  choice  of  Edward  L.  Keyes 
as  Chairman,  and  William  Bassett  as  Secretary. 

The  mass  delegations  from  Boston  and  other  sections  of  the 
State  were  received  with  great  cheering  as  they  entered  the  hall, 
which  soon  became  so  crowded  that  an  adjournment  to  the  Com- 
mon became  necessary,  to  hear  the  speaking.  After  the  transac- 
tion of  the  preliminary  business,  John  S.  Eldridge  of  Boston  read 
a  letter  from  a  mass  meeting  holding  in  Philadelphia,  addressed 
to  this  convention,  expressive  of  enthusiastic  confidence  in  the 
final  triumph  of  the  great  revolution  for  liberty  then  going  on  all 
over  the  land.  Stephen  C.  Phillips  read  a  resolution  of  thanks  to 
Charles  Allen  and  Henry  Wilson  in  endorsement  of  their  course 
in  repudiation  of  the  nominations  at  Philadelphia.  Judge  Allen 
•was  then  introduced  amid  great  applause,  and  made  an  able  ad- 
dress in  support  of  his  action,  which  was  enthusiastically  received. 
Charles  Sumner  read  a  letter  from  Hon.  J.  P.  Williams,  M.  C,  a 
delegate  to  the  Philadelphia  Convention  from  Michigan,  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  objects  of  this  convention.  Addresses  followed 
by  Henry  Wilson,  the  coadjutor  of  Judge  Allen  at  Philadelphia, 
Abram  Payne  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  John  C.  Woodman  of  Maine, 
Amasa  Walker  of  North  Brookfield,  Joshua  Leavitt  of  Boston, 
Lewis  D.  Campbell,  M.  C,  of  Ohio,  and  others,  strongly  approving 
the  objects  of  the  gathering. 

The  afternoon  session  of  the  convention  was  held  in  what  was 
called  *'  Hospital  Grove,"  on  the  south  side  of  the  lot  where  now 
stands  the  State  Normal  School.  At  the  opening,  Hon.  Stephen 
C.  Phillips,  chairman  of  the  committee  on  address  and  resolu- 
tions, made  an  elaborate  and  ably  written  report,  which  he  read 
in  his  well-remembered  eloquent  manner,  his  powerful  voice  mak- 
ing itself  distinctly  heard  throughout  that  vast  assembly,  amid 
frequent   applause.     With  what  emphasis  did  Mr.  Phillips   read 


APPENDIX.  69 

this  expressive  resolution :  "  That  Massachusetts  looks  to  Daniel 
"Webster  to  declare  to  the  Senate  and  to  uphold  before  the  country 
the  policy  of  the  Free  States ;  that  she  is  relieved  to  know  that  he 
has  not  endorsed  the  nomination  of  General  Taylor ;  and  that  she 
invokes  him,  at  this  crisis,  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  '  optimists '  and 
'  quietists,'  and  to  speak  and  act  as  his  heart  and  his  great  mind 
shall  lead  him  "  ! 

At  the  beginning  of  this  significant  reference  to  the  great  Mas- 
sachusetts statesman  the  speaker  was  interrupted  with  "  No ! 
No ! "  from  several  voices  in  different  sections  of  the  audience  ; 
but  on  Mr.  Phillips  explaining  that  the  resolution  only  said  "  looks 
to  Daniel  Webster,"  with  strong  hopes  that  he  might  on  this  ques- 
tion be  true  to  his  highest  declarations  in  the  past,  without  expres- 
sion of  confidence  that  he  would  do  so,  the  objectors  were  satisfied, 
and  the  address  and  resolutions  were  adopted  entire. 

With  what  enthusiastic  cheering  was  the  following;  resolution  of 
the  series  received,  when  read  by  Mr.  Phillips :  "  That  the  follow- 
ing language  of  Henry  Clay,  which  has  often  been  echoed  by  the 
Whig  party,  is  a  rebuke  of  that  same  party  for  its  nomination  of 
General  Taylor :  '  If,  indeed  (said  Mr.  Clay)  we  have  incurred 
the  divine  displeasure,  and  if  it  be  necessary  to  chastise  this  people 
with  a  rod  of  vengeance,  I  would  humbly  prostrate  myself  before 
God,  and  implore  Ilim  in  His  mercy  to  visit  our  favored  land 
with  war,  with  pestilence,  with  famine,  with  any  other  scourge 
than  military  rule,  or  a  blind  and  heedless  enthusiasm  for  mere 
military  renown ' "  !  The  force  of  this  resolution  is  seen  in  the 
fact  that  General  Taylor  was  nominated  purely  on  account  of  his 
successful  leadership  in  a  war  which  had  been  pronounced  by  the 
"Whigs  of  the  Northern  States  "  the  most  infamous  war  ever 
waged  in  all  human  history." 

Among  the  other  resolutions  was  one  endorsing  the  course  of 
Senator  John  P.  Hale  of  New  Hampshire  and  Representative 
Joshua  R.  Giddings  of  Ohio,  in  Congress ;  eloquent  speeches  fol- 
lowed by  Mr.  Giddings,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Charles  Sumner, 
E.  Rockwood  Hoar,  and  others,  and  the  following  delegates  at 
large  were  chosen  to  the  National  Free  Soil  Convention  held  at 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  August  9  and  10, —  Stephen  C.  Phillips  of  Salem, 
Daniel  W.  Alvord  of  Greenfield,  William  Jackson  of  Newton, 
John  M.  Brewster  of  Pittsfield,  Charles  B.  Sedgwick  of  Stock- 


70  FREE    SOIL    REUNION    AT    BOSTON. 

bridge,  and  John  A.  Bolles  of  Boston  ;  with  thirty  district  dele- 
gates inchidiiiij  such  representative  men  as  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
Richard  II.  Dana,  Jr.,  John  B.  Alley  of  Lynn,  Joshua  Leavitt  of 
the  *'  Boston  Emancipator,"  David  Lee  Child  of  Boston,  Gershom 
B.  "Weston  of  Duxbury,  John  Mills  of  Springfield,  George  F. 
Farley  of  Groton,  Chauncy  L.  Knapp  of  Lowell,  Nathan  Brooks 
of  Concord,  Albert  G.  Browne  of  Salem,  Alexander  DeWitt,  Rho- 
dolphus  B.  Hubbard,  Charles  White  of  Worcester,  and  others. 

Hon.  Milton  M.  Fisher,  of  Med  way,  was  called  upon  by 
the  President,  but  he  had  left  the  room  in  consequence  of 
sudden  indisposition.  The  following  is  an  abstract  of  the 
remarks  he  had  prepared  for  the  occasion  :  — 

REMARKS  OF   HON.    MILTON   M.    FISHER. 

Mr.  President,  I  assume  that  it  is  simply  from  the  fact  that  I 
am  providentially  the  only  one  of  two  representatives  now  living, 
and  the  only  one  present  to-day  of  fifteen  members  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Resolutions  adopted  at  the  organization  of  the  Free  Soil 
party,  that  I  am  asked  to  say  a  word  on  this  occasion.  In  the 
more  vivid  remembrance  of  that  eventful  day,  and  the  progress 
marked  by  it  in  the  great  Antislavery  movement,  beginning  nearly 
twenty  years  before,  I  had  well  nigh  forgotten  my  incidental  rela- 
tion to  it,  until  your  announcement  of  the  fact  in  your  opening 
address. 

Everything  has  a  beginning ;  the  Free  Soil  party  was  not  an 
exception.  But  something  always  precedes  a  beginning,  and 
something  preceded  the  Free  Soil  party,  else  it  had  never  been. 
Antislavery  sentiments  —  convictions  held  with  the  tenacity  of  a 
divine  inspiration  —  preceded  it.  They  found  early  utterance  in 
Garrison  and  Whittier,  Lovejoy  and  Leavitt,  Quincy  and  Phillips, 
through  the  "  Liberator  "  and  the  "  Emancipator,"  and  many  pul- 
pits. They  were  crystallized  as  a  moral  sentiment  in  the  American 
Antislavery  Society  in  1833,  and  politically  in  the  Liberty  party 
in  1840.  The  latter  organization  was  hopeful  and  aspiring,  if  not 
vigorous  and  stalwart,  when  the  Free  Soil  party  was  organized. 
Yes,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  had  a  vitality  in  the  conscience  and  intelli- 


APPENDIX.  71 

gence  of  the  people  that  could  not  have  been  annihilated,  but  as 
Joshua  Leavitt  said  at  the  Buffalo  Cunvention  in  August,  1848, 
might  be,  as  it  was,  "  translated "  bodily  into  a  wider  realm  of 
immortality  through  the  Free  Soil  party  of  the  Republic. 

It  was  my  honor  and  privilege,  with  Charles  Francis  Adams  of 
Quincy  (a  conscience  Whig)  and  William  J.  Reynolds  of  Rox- 
bury  (a  barnburner  Democrat),  to  represent  the  Liberty  party 
of  Norfolk  County  in  that  first  National  Convention  of  the  Free 
Soil  party  which  augmented  the  rising  tide  still  higher,  until, 
through  the  Republican  party  of  1856,  —  by  the  pen  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  —  the  armies  of  the  Union,  and  "  the  gracious  favor  of 
Almighty  God  "  the  death-struggle  of  a  generation  ended  in  vic- 
tory for  "  Free  Soil,  Fkee  Labor,  and  Free  Men." 

Yes,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  men  and  the  women  too  who  talked 
and  prayed  in  schoolhouses  and  chapels,  who  worked  till  towns 
and  counties  were  roused  and  organized  for  aggressive  and  efficient 
service,  are  entitled  to  high  credit  and  honorable  mention  on  this 
occasion  as  the  pioneers  and  heralds  of  the  Free  Soil  party. 
Among  them  were  the  saints  and  martyrs  of  the  gospel  of 
Liberty  who  suffered  death  and  the  loss  of  all  things  for  the  cause. 
Few  escaped  a  social  and  political  ostracism  and  the  scorn  and 
contempt  of  former  friends,  equivalent  to  death  itself;  and  some  of 
us  are  old  enough  to  know  whereof  we  speak. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  former  things  have  passed  away.  If  it 
were  not  a  day  for  reminiscences  we  might  indulge  in  anticipations. 
It  is  enough  for  us  that  our  lives  and  deeds  are  a  matter  of  history, 
and  that  God  in  his  providence  has  vindicated  the  cause  we  es- 
poused. For  the  future  we  need  not  fear.  The  old  Roman  proverb 
is  still  our  hope  and  trust,  —  "  Magna  est  Veritas  et  prgevalebit." 

Hon.  Albert  Tolman  made  a  brief  address  mainlv  in 
review  of  the  early  vote  of  the  party  in  Worcester,  but 
with  characteristic  modesty  declined  to  prepare  a  report 
for  the  press,  for  tlie  reason  assigned  tliat  the  work  would 
be  better  done  by  his  friends  from  Worcester. 


72  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 


LETTERS. 


Among  the  letters  received  are  the  following:  — 

LETTER  FROM   DR.    BOWDITCH. 

Boston,  June  7,  1888. 

Mr.    HeNRT    0.    HiLDRETH. 

Dear  Sir,  —  It  would  aiford  me  sincere  pleasure  to  join  the 
survivors  of  those  who  formed  the  Free  Soil  party,  but  circum- 
stances beyond  my  control  will  prevent  me  from  so  doing.  I  was 
a  "  Liberty  Party  "  man  when  it  polled  only  twenty  votes  in 
Boston  ;  therefore  I  feel  that  I  could  rightfully  take  my  seat 
amonff  the  Juniors,  because  I  was  one  of  the  "  Old  Guard  "  and 
in  a  warm  fight  for  Liberty  before  some  of  your  Free  Soilers  were 
born  into  the  noble  contest. 

I  wish  that  your  meeting  may  be,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  it 
will  be,  an  entire  success. 

Respectfully  yours,  Henry  I.  Bowditch. 


LETTER   FROM  JOHN   G.   WHITTIER. 

Danvers,  June  27,  1888. 
Hon.  William  Claflin. 

My  dear  Friend,  —  I  am  not  in  a  condition  to  "dine  out," 
but  if  my  health  admits,  I  shall  try  and  look  in  upon  you  at  Par- 
ker's for  a  few  minutes  and  shake  hands  with  my  old  friends  of 
1848.  We  are  all  justly  proud  of  the  record  of  the  party  we 
formed  forty  years  ago.  It  saved  the  Union ;  it  abolished  slavery. 
If  it  has  made  some  mistakes  incidental  to  fallible  humanity,  it 
has  been  and  still  is  faithful  to  its  original  doctrines  of  human 
equality  and  the  free  exercise  of  the  rights  of  citizenship,  irre- 
spective of  color  or  condition.  It  has  never  gone  back  on  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  We  have  good  reason  for  rejoicing 
over  its  past,  and  in  the  prospects  of  its  future  success  and  useful- 
ness.    Hoping  to  see  thee  to-morrow,  I  am 

Always  thy  friend,  John  G.  Whittier. 


APPENDIX.  73 


LETTER   FROM   SENATOR   HOAR. 

United  States  Senate, 
Washington,  D.C.  Aug.  21,  1888. 
Henry  0.  Hildeeth,  Esq. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  in  my  power,  with- 
out subjecting  your  publication  to  an  inconvenient  delay,  to  give 
the  contribution  to  it  which  you  ask.  I  hope  at  some  early  day , 
when  I  have  time,  to  make  some  pretty  elaborate  contribution  to 
the  political  history  of  that  period. 

I  am  yours  very  truly, 

Geo.  F.  Hoar. 


LETTER   FROM  JUDGE   HOAR. 

Concord,  Sept.  1,  1888. 
Henry  0.  Hildreth,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  been  absent  from  Massachusetts  the  past 
month,  which  has  caused  the  delay  in  receiving  and  replying  to 
your  kind  note  of  August  20. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  that  the  proceedings  of  the  Reunion  of  Free 
Boilers  held  in  Boston  in  June  last  are  to  be  preserved  in  pam- 
phlet form,  and  shall  hope  to  be  able  to  procure  a  copy. 

As  reported  in  the  newspapers,  they  were  extremely  interesting 
to  me,  especially  the  address  of  E.  L.  Pierce,  who  presided,  and  I 
much  regretted  that  it  was  out  of  my  power  to  be  present.  But 
age  and  infirmities  have  so  far  unfitted  me  for  participation  in 
public  meetings,  that  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  I  should  have 
said  anything  if  I  had  been  there ;  and  what,  if  anything,  I  should 
have  said,  I  fear  is  beyond  human  wit  to  determine. 

The  men  who  were  there  assembled  had  been  large  contributors 
to  their  country's  welfare,  and  it  will  always  be  a  source  of  great 
satisfaction  to  me  that  I  was  able  to  lend  a  hand  in  such  a  work, 
and  with  such  associates. 

Very  truly  yours, 

E.  R.  Hoar. 

10 


74  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT   BOSTON. 


THE   FREE  SOILERS    OF    1848   AND    1852. 


In  the  "  Boston  Commonwealth  "  of  March  7  and  May  9,  1885, 
there  were  printed  lists  of  more  than  one  hundred  of  the  prom- 
inent Free  Soilers  of  1848  and  1852,  prepared  by  Hon.  Edward 
L.  Pierce.  These  lists,  which  were  mainly  confined  to  the  Free 
Soilers  of  Eastern  Massachusetts,  are  reprinted  here,  with  such 
additions  as  could  be  conveniently  made,  as  a  partial  record  of  the 
members  of  that  historical  party.  The  most  prominent  leaders 
are  grouped  together,  and  the  other  names  are  simply  arranged  in 
alphabetical  order.  There  has  been  no  attempt  at  completeness, 
many  being  omitted  who  were  quite  as  worthy  to  be  mentioned  as 
others  who  are  included. 

Since  the  organization  of  the  Free  Soil  party  in  1848,  there 
have  been  three  conspicuous  social  gatherings  of  the  members  in 
Massachusetts,  —  the  banquet  given  to  Hon.  John  P.  Hale,  in 
the  hall  of  the  Fitchburg  Railroad  Station  in  Boston,  May  5,  1853, 
at  which  fifteen  hundred  Free  Soil  men  and  women  were  present ; 
the  dinner  given  by  the  late  Samuel  Dov^^ner,  at  Downer's  Land- 
ing, Hiugham,  August  9,  1877,  that  being  the  29th  anniversary 
of  the  Buffalo  Convention,  which  was  attended  by  two  hundred 
gentlemen ;  and  the  Reunion,  to  the  proceedings  of  which  this  vol- 
ume is  mainly  devoted. 

Charles  Francis  Adams,  born  in  Quincy,  Aug.  18,  1807;  died 
in  Boston,  Nov.  2,  1886.  From  1845  to  1848  he  did  perhaps  more 
than  any  one,  by  his  contributions  to  the  Boston  "  Whig"  which  he 
conducted,  by  his  addresses  and  his  wise  counsels,  to  consolidate  the 
Antislavery  section  of  the  Whig  party;  and  from  1848  to  1852  he 
continued  active  in  speaking,  and  also  contributed  considerable  sums 
for  the  promotion  of  the  cause. 

Charles  Allen,  of  Worcester,  born  Aug.  9, 1797;  died  Aug.  6, 1869. 
More  than  any  one  after  the  Whig  National  Convention  in  1848, 
in  which  he  declared  his  determination  to  oppose  General  Taylor's 
election,  he  brought  the  heart  of  the  Commonwealth  to  the  support  of 


APPENDIX.  75 

the  Free  Soil  cause.     In  character  he  is  worthy  to  be  placed  by  the 
side  of  Samuel  Adams. 

JoHX  G.  Palfrey,  of  Cambridge,  born  May  2,  1795;  died  April 
26,  1881.  His  papers  on  the  "  Slave  Power,"  growing  out  of  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  and  his  popular  addresses,  were  very  effective. 

Stephen  C.  Phillips,  of  Salem,  born  Nov.  1,  1801;  died  June  26, 
1857,  by  the  burning  on  the  St.  Lawrence  of  a  steamer  on  which  he 
was  a  passenger.  He  was  a  gallant  leader  of  the  Antislavery  section 
of  the  "Whig  j>arty,  both  as  writer  and  speaker,  and  his  evident  sin- 
cerity and  earnest  eloquence  wei-e  very  impressive  in  his  popular  ad- 
dresses. His  sons,  Stephen  H.  and  Willard  P.,  both  still  living,  were 
in  entire  sympathy  with  him. 

Charles  Sumner,  of  Boston,  born  Jan.  6,  1811;  died  in  Wash- 
ington, as  Senator,  March  11,  1874.  He  was  the  coadjutor  of  Mr. 
Phillips  and  INIr.  Adams  from  1845,  both  by  speeches  and  in  contribu- 
tions to  the  ne\\'spapers. 

Henry  Wilson,  of  Natick,  born  Feb.  16,  1812 ;  died  in  Washington, 
as  Vice-President,  Nov.  22,  1875.  He  was  the  most  indi  fatigable  of 
all  the  Free  Soilers,  made  more  addresses,  wrote  more  articles,  and 
knew  more  men  in  the  party  than  any  other  leader.  He  organized 
and  inspired  the  coalition  which  overthrew  the  Whigs,  having  in  this 
movement  the  sympathy  and  co-operation  of  Sumner,  but  not  of 
Phillips,  Adams,  or  Palfrey. 


Shubael  p.  Adams,  born  Feb.  5,  1817 ;  formerly  of  Lowell,  but 
now  living  in  Dubuque,  Iowa;  active  as  a  writer  and  speaker  in  the 
years  of  1848-1853. 

Daniel  Allen,  of  Walpole,  died  Jan.  22,  1880,  aged  sixty-five. 

John  B.  Alley,  of  Lynn,  born  Jan  7,  1817.  The  coadjutor  of 
Wilson  and  Bird  in  organizing  the  Free  Soil  movement. 

John  A.  Andrew,  of  Boston,  born  May  31,  1818;  died  Oct.  30, 
1867.  His  speeches  were  marked  with  ability  and  fervor,  and  his 
office  at  No.  4  Court  Street  was  the  starting-point  of  effective  work 
for  the  cause. 

Edmund  Anthony,  of  New  Bedford,  born  Aug.  2, 1808;  died  Jan. 
24,  1876. 

Daniel  W.  Alvord,  of  Greenfield,  born  Oct.  21,  1816;  died  Aug. 
3,  1871,  in  Fairfax  County,  Virginia.  Organized  the  Free  Soilers  of 
Franklin  County. 

Edward  Atkinson,  burn  in  Brookline  Feb.  10,  1827. 


76  FREE    SOIL    REUNION   AT    BOSTON. 

John  D.  Baldwin,  of  Boston  and  Worcester,  born  September, 
1809;  died  June,  1883.  Came  from  Connecticut  to  edit  the  "  Daily 
Commonwealth"  in  January,  1853. 

Geokge  M.  Baker,  of  Marshfield,  born  in  1820. 

Ali.en  Bangs,  of  Springfield,  born  July  26,  1819;  died  Nov. 
24,  1853. 

John  N.  Barbour,  of  Cambridge,  born  in  Boston,  Oct.  4,  1805. 

Samuel  D.  Bardwell,  of  Shelburne  Falls,  born  May,  1819. 

Francis  W.  Bird,  of  Walpole,  born  in  Dedham,  Oct.  22,  1809,  was 
active  and  able  as  a  writer  and  as  an  organizer  of  the  Antislavery  sen- 
timent both  in  his  county  and  in  the  State  generally. 

John  A.  Bolles,  of  Winchester,  born  April  16,  1809;  died  May, 
1878,  in  Washington  City. 

IMatthew  Bolles,  of  Boston,  born  June  11,  1807. 

Thomas  T.  Bouvk,  of  Boston,  born  Jan.  14,  1815. 

Samuel  A.  B.  Bragg,  of  Boston,  born  Nov.  2,  1825. 

George  M.  Brooks,  of  Concord,  born  July  26,  1824. 

Albert  G.  Browne,  of  Salem,  born  Dec.  8,  1805;  died  Oct. 
10,  1885. 

Anson  Burlingame,  of  Cambridge,  born  Nov.  14,  1820;  died  in 
St.  Petersburg,  in  the  service  of  the  Emperor  of  China,  Feb.  23,  1870. 
He  was  always  welcome  as  a  speaker,  particularly  on  account  of  the 
sentiment  and  enthusiasm  of  his  speeches,  qualities  which  were  the 
product  of  his  birth  and  early  life  in  the  West. 

Joseph  T.  Buckingham,  of  Cambridge,  born  Dec.  21,  1779;  died 
April  11,  1861.  An  incorruptible  editor,  who  was  forced  to  leave  the 
"  Boston  Courier"  because  he  was  a  "Conscience"  Whig  and  re- 
fused to  support  Taylor  in  1848.  He  was  afterward  a  coalition  Sen- 
ator from  Middlesex  County. 

Sanford  Carroll,  of  Dedham,  born  in  Walpole,  Oct.  22,  1810. 

Josiah  H.  Carter,  of  Dorchester,  born  Feb.  22,  1812. 

Robert  Carter,  of  Cambridge,  born  Feb.  5,  1819  ;  died  in  New 
York,  Feb.  15,  1879. 

Otis  Cary,  of  Foxborough,  born  June  14,  1804;  died  April  25,  1888. 

George  N.  Cate,  of  Marlborough,  born  Dec.  11,  1824. 

Francis  Childs,  of  Charlestown,  born  July  20,  1820;  an  early 
organizer  for  John  G.  Palfrey's  election  to  Congress.  Died  April 
6,  1887. 

Asaph  Churchill,  of  Dorchester,  born  in  Milton,  April  20,  1814. 


APPENDIX.  77 

Joseph  M.  Churchill,  of  Milton,  born  April  29,  1821;  died 
March  23,  1886. 

Charles  M.  S.  Churchill,  of  INIilton,  born  May  1,  1825. 
William  Claflin,  of  Newton,  born  in  Hopkinton,  March  6,  1818. 
Ebexezeu  Clapp,  of  Dorchester,  born  April  24,  1809 ;  died  June 

12,  1881. 

James  Freeman  Clarke,  of  Boston,  died  June  8,  1888,  aged 
seventy-eight. 

Asa  Clement,  of  Dracut,  born  May  18,  1813. 

Frederick  Crafts,   of  Dorchester,   died  April  20,    1874,   aged 
seventy-seven. 
Joshua  E.  Craxe,  of  Bridgewater,  born  July  9,  1823;  died  Aug. 

5,  1888. 

Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  of  Cambridge,  born  Aug.  1, 1815  ;  died  Jan. 

6,  1882,  in  Rome,  Italy,  where  he  is  buried.     A  brilliant  writer  and 
speaker,  and  conspicuous  for  his  services  in  behalf  of  fugitive  slaves. 

Charles  G.  Davis,  of  Plymouth,  born  May  30,  1820. 
Robert  T.  Davis,  of  Fall  River,  born  Aug.  28,  1823. 
William  T.  Davis,  of  Plymouth,  born  March  3,  1822. 
Alexander  DeWitt,  of  Oxford,  born  April  2,  1798;  died  Jan. 

13,  1879. 

Samuel  Downer,  of  Dorchester,  born  March  8,  1807  ;  died  Sept. 
20,  1881.  He  gathered  the  Free  Soilers  at  Downer's  Landing 
in  1877. 

Thomas  Drew,  of  Worcester,  born  in  Plymouth,  Aug.  23,  1819. 
For  many  years  identified  with  the  Worcester  "  Spy." 

John  Milton  Earle,  of  Worcester,  born  April  13,  1794;  died  Feb. 
8,  1874.     Editor  of  the  Worcester  "  Spy." 

!MoRTON  Eddy,  of  Bridgewater,  born  1797;  died  in  Fall  River, 
!March  24,  1888.  He  was  one  of  two  in  Bridgewater  who  voted  for 
Birney  in  1840. 

John  S.  Eldridge,  of  Canton,  born  Sept.  23,  1819 ;  died  March 
23,  1876. 

Charles  Endicott,  of  Canton,  born  October  28,  1822. 

William  Endicott,  Jr.,  of  Boston,  born  in  Beverly,  Jan.  4,  1826. 

Charles  M.  Ellis,  of  Roxbury,  born  December,  1818;  died  in 
Brookline,  Jan.  23,  1878.     A  defender  of  fugitive  slaves. 

Alonzo  II.  Evans,  of  Everett,  born  in  AUeutowu,  N.  H.,  Feb. 
20,  1824. 


78        FREE  SOIL  REUNION  AT  BOSTON. 

Milton  M.  Fisher,  of  Medway,  born  in  Franklin,  Jan.  30,  1811. 

Rodney  French,  of  New  Bedford,  born  May  2,  1802;  died  April 
30,  1882. 

George  Frost,  of  Roxbury,  born  Dec.  11,  1819;  died  March 
22,  1876. 

Thomas  Gaffield,  born  in  Boston,  Jan.  14,  1825. 

Ebenezer  F.  Gay,  of  Dedham,  died  Nov.  15,  1871,  aged  fifty-one. 

George  W.  Gay,  of  Sharon,  born  in  Roxbury,  April  80,  1817. 

Timothy  Gilbert,  of  Boston,  born  Jan.  5,  1797;  died  July  19, 

1865.  In  a  public  card  he  defied  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  and  gave 
unwearied  service  to  the  cause. 

Daniel  W.  Gooch,  of  Melrose,  born  Jan.  8,  1820. 

Francis  R.  Gourgas,  of  Concord,  died  July  12,  1853,  aged  forty- 
two,  while  serving  in  the  Constitutional  convention. 

John  Gove,  of  Boston,  born  July  31,  1800;  died  May  14,  1871. 

John  Q.  A.  Griffin,  of  Charlestown,  born  July  8,  1826;  died  in 

1866.  Remarkable  for  his  vigor  of  style  and  wit. 

Henry  Guild,  of  Boston,  born  in  Dedham,. Nov.  29,  1818. 
Christopher  A.  Hack,  of  Taunton,  born  Dec.  9,  1806. 

Nathaniel  Hall,  of  Dorchester,  born  in  Medford,  Aug.  13,  1805 ; 
died  October  21,  1875. 

Lewis  Hayden,  of  Boston,  born-Dec.  3,  1811.  A  faithful  colored 
servant  to  his  brethren  in  bonds. 

Joseph  K.  Hayes,  of  Boston,  born  Feb.  15,  1813.  Resigned  from 
the  Boston  police  rather  than  aid  in  the  return  of  a  fugitive  slave. 

Charles  A.  Hewins,  of  West  Roxbury,  born  in  Dedham,  Jan. 
4,  1822. 

Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  of  Cambridge,  born  Dec.  22, 
1823.     An  earnest  worker  and  speaker. 

Henry  O.  Hildreth,  of  Dedham,  born  in  Dorchester,  March 
22,  1826. 

MiLO  Hildreth,  of  Northborough,  born  in  Townsend,  Aug. 
17,  1824. 

Richard  Hildreth,  of  Boston,  born  in  Sterling,  June  28,  1807; 
died  in  Florence,  Italy,  July  11,  1865.  Noted  as  an  historian  and 
a  political  writer. 

Samuel  Hoar,  born  in  Lincoln,  May  18,  1788 ;  died  in  Concord, 
Nov.  2,  1856.  A  man  of  marked  character,  and  of  great  influence, 
especially  in  Middlesex  County. 


APPENDIX.  79 

I 

E.  RocKWOOD  Hoar,  born  in  Concord,  Feb.  21,  1816.  He  was 
prominent  as  a  "  Conscience  Whig,"  and  active  as  a  Free  Soiler 
in  1848. 

George  Frisbie  Hoar,  born  in  Concord,  Aug.  29,  1826.  He  was 
too  young  to  be  very  prominent  in  1848,  but  he  took  a  leading  part 
in  the  Legislature  of  1852,  making  an  Antislavery  speech. 

Eli  W.  Holbrook,  of  West  Boylston,  born  Dec.  22,  1809. 

Erastus  Hopkins,  of  Northampton,  born  at  Hadley,  April  7,  1810; 
died  Jan.  9,  1872. 

Appleton  Howe,  of  Weymouth,  born  Nov.  2,  1792;  died  Oct. 
10,  1870. 

Estes  Howe,  of  Cambridge,  born  July  13,  1814;  died  Jan. 
12,  1887. 

Samuel  G.  Howe,  of  Boston,  born  Nov.  10,  1801;  died  Jan. 
9,  1876. 

Henry  Humphreys,  of  Dorchester,  born  April  3,  1801. 

Athertox  N.  Hunt,  of  Weymouth,  died  Jan.  8,  1865,  aged 
sixty-two. 

Charles  P.  Huntington,  of  Northampton,  born  May  24,  1802; 
died  Jan.  28,  1868. 

William  Jackson,  of  Newton,  born  Sept.  6,  1783;  died  Feb. 
27,  1855. 

Edward  Jar  vis,  of  Dorchester,  born  in  Concord,  Jan.  9,  1803  ; 
died  Oct.  31,  1884. 

John  P.  Jewett,  of  Boston,  born  Aug.  16,  1814;  died  May 
14,  1884. 

W.  H.  S.  Jordan,  of  Boston,  born  1814. 

John  A.  Kasson,  of  New  Bedford,  born  Jan.  11,  1822;  now  living 
in  Iowa. 

Edward  L.  Keyes,  of  Dedham,  born  in  1812;  died  June  6,  1859. 
He  was  an  orator  endowed  by  nature  with  remarkable  powers,  and 
both  as  editor  and  speaker  was  distinguished  by  his  severe  and  tren- 
chant style. 

Franklin  King,  of  Dorchester,  born  in  Chesterfield,  Dec.  8,  1808. 

Thomas  Kingsbury,  of  Needham,  died  ]\Iay  14,  1859,  aged 
sixty-four. 

Chauncy  L.  Knapp,  of  Lowell,  born  in  Berlin,  Vermont,  Feb. 
26,  1809. 

Philo  Leach,  of  Bridgewater,  died  Sept.  8,  1853,  aged  fifty-six. 


80  FREE    SOIL    REUNION    AT    BOSTON. 

Joshua  Leavitt,  of  Boston,  born  Sept.  8,  1794;  died  in  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.,  Jan.  16,  1873.     The  well  known  Antislavery  editor. 

Joseph  Lyman,  of  Boston,  born  Aug.  17,  1812;  died  Aug.  14, 1871. 

Horace  Mann,  of  Newton,  born  May  4,  1796;  died  in  Yellow 
Springs,  Ohio,  as  President  of  Antioch  College,  Aug.  2,  1859. 

Seth  Mann,  of  Randolph,  born  Feb.  28,  1817. 

John  J.  May,  of  Dorchester,  born  Oct.  15,  1813. 

Andrew  McPhail,  Jr.,  of  Boston,  born  Feb.  28,  1817. 

Annis  Merrill,  of  Boston,  born  in  Harwich,  Sept.  9.  1810.  For 
many  years  a  resident  of  California. 

John  J.  Merrill,  of  Roxbury,  born  April  16,  1821. 

James  H.  Morton,  of  Springfield,  died  in  1876,  aged  about 
fifty-three. 

Marcus  Morton,  of  Taunton,  born  Dec.  19,  1784;  died  Feb.  6, 
1864.  Acted  with  the  Free  Soilers  in  1848,  but  later  was  more  in 
sympathy  with  the  Democratic  party. 

Marcus  Morton,  Jr.,  of  Andover,  born  April  8,  1819.  Now 
chief-justice  of  the  State. 

Nathaniel  Morton,  of  Taunton,  died  in  1856,  aged  about  thirty- 
seven. 

Alva  Morrison,  of  Braintree,  born  May  13,  1806;  died  May 
28,  1879. 

Benjamin  B.  Mussey,  of  Boston,  born  April  28,  1804;  died  Jan. 
12,  1857. 

Curtis  C.  Nichols,  of  Cambridge,  born  in  Freetown,  March  6, 1814. 

John  A.  Nowell,  of  Boston,  born  in  Sandford,  Me.,  May  16,  1817. 

Theodore  Otis,  of  Roxbury,  born  Dec.  15,  1810;  died  July 
11,  1873. 

John  C.  Park,  of  Boston,  born  June  10,  1804. 

Theodore  Parker,  of  Boston,  born  Aug.  24,  1810;  died  in 
Florence,  Italy,  May  10,  1860.  Full  of  corn-age  and  forecast,  and 
profoundly  in  earnest. 

Edwin  Patch,  of  Lynn,  born  May  12,  1820. 

Charles  A.  Phelps,  of  Boston,  born  Oct.  19,  1820. 

William  Phillips,  of  Lynn,  born  April  29,  1799. 

Edward  L.  Pierce,  of  Milton,  born  March  29,  1829.  Active  as  a 
writer  and  speaker  from  early  manhood. 

Henry  L.  Pierce,  of  Dorchester,  born  Aug.  23,  1825.  Active  as 
an  organizer. 


APPENDIX.  81 

I 

John  Pierpont,  of  Medford,  born  April  6,  1785;  died  Aug. 
27,  1866. 

HiKAM  A.  Pratt,  of  Easton,  born  August  12,  1826. 

Laban  Pratt,  of  Dorchester,  born  in  Weymouth,  Nov.  15,  1829. 

Nathax  B.  Prescott,  of  Roxbury,  born  1827. 

John  M.  Read,  of  Boston,  born  April  1,  1809. 

William  Richardson,  of  Dorchester,  died  June  6,  1856,  aged 
forty-two;  remarkable  for  his  personal  influence  and  power  in  con- 
versation and  attracting  his  townsmen  to  the  Free  Soil  movement 
at  its  beginning. 

James  T.  Robinson,  of  North  Adams,  born  Sept.  6,  1822. 

William  S.  Robinson,  of  Lowell,  born  Dec.  7,  1818;  died  in 
Maiden,  March  11,  1876.     A  voluminous  writer  for  the  cause. 

Thomas  Russell,  of  Boston,  born  Sept.  26,  1825;  died  Feb. 
9,  1887. 

Samuel  E.  Sewall,  of  Melrose,  boru  Nov.  9,  1799.  Now  living 
as  the  Nestor  of  the  Massachusetts  bar. 

Thomas  Sherwin,  of  Dedham,  died  July  23,  1869,  aged  seventy. 

John  Shorey,  of  Dedham,  born  in  South  Berwick,  Maine,  1804; 
died  Sept.  4,  1849. 

Charles  W.  Slack,  of  Boston,  born  Feb.  21,  1825;  died  April  11, 
1883.  An  early  writer  and  speaker  for  the  cause,  and  editor  of  the 
Weekly  "Commonwealth"  from  October,  1864,  to  the  time  of  his 
death. 

Horace  E.  Smith,  of  Chelsea,  now  Dean  of  the  Albany,  N.  Y. 
Law  School.  Born  in  Weston,  Vt.,  Jan.  30,  1817.  Active  with 
voice  and  pen. 

William  B.  Spooner,  of  Boston,  born  April  20,  1806;  died  Oct. 
28,  1880.     A  generous  friend  of  the  cause. 

George  L.  Stearns,  of  Medford,  born  Jan.  8,  1809;  died  April  9, 
1867.  The  friend  of  John  Brown;  rendered  important  service  in 
raising  colored  troops  during  the  Civil  War,  and  in  sustaining  Anti- 
slavery  newspapers. 

Charles  A.  Stevens,  of  Ware,  born  Aug.  9,  1816. 

Eliphalet  Stone,  of  Dedham,  born  May  12,  1813;  died  Feb. 
5,  1886. 

James  ^1.  Stone,  of  Charlestown,  born  Aug.  13,  1817;  died  Dec. 
19,  1880.     Did  effective  work  in  that  locality. 

James  W.  Stone,  of  Boston,  born  Oct.  26,  1824;  died  Aug.  21, 
1863.     Active  in  organising  and  collecting  funds. 

11 


82  FREE    SOIL    REUNION    AT    BOSTON. 

Erpjn  F.  Stone,  of  Newburyport,  born  Aug.  3,  1822.  Rendered 
efficient  service  in  Essex  County. 

Caleb  Swan,  of  Easton,  born  1796;  died  1870.  Addressed  meet- 
ings in  Bristol,  Norfolk,  and  Plymoutli  counties,  and  was  energetic  in 
organizing  the  movement  in  his  part  of  the  State. 

John  L.  Swift,  of  Boston,  born  May  28,  1828.  A  most  effective 
orator. 

Velorous  Taft,  of  Upton,  born  Dec.  10,  1819. 

Joseph  B.  Thaxter,  of  Ilingham,  born  June  1,  1818. 

Abijah  W.  Thayer,  of  Northampton,  born  Jan.  6,  1796 ;  died 
April  24,  1864. 

Adin  Thayer,  of  Worcester,  born  in  Mendon,  Dec.  5,  1828;  died 
Aug.  4,  1888. 

Eli  Thayer,  of  Worcester,  born  June  11,  1819.  Organizer  of 
free  state  emigration  to  Kansas. 

Edwin  Thompson,  of  East  Walpole,  born  July  23,  1809;  died  May 
22,  1888. 

Albert  Tolman,  of  Worcester,  born  Dec.  23,  1808.  An  untiring 
worker  in  the  cause. 

Martin  Torrey,  of  Foxborough,  died  Nov.  2,  1861,  aged 
seventy-two. 

William  B.  Trask,  of  Dorchester,  born  Nov.  25,  1812. 

Sampson    R.    Urbino,    of    Roxbury,    born    in    Germany,    April 

18,  1818. 

Thomas  L.  Wakefield,  of  Dedham,  born  June  15,  1817;  died 
June  21,  1888. 

Edwin  Walden,  of  Lynn,  born  Nov.  25,  1818. 

William  A.  Wallace,  of  Worcester,  born  Sept.  28,  1815. 

Amasa  Walker,  of  North  Brookfield,  born  May  4,  1799;  died 
Oct.  29,  1875. 

Oliver  Warner,  of  Northampton,  born  April  17,  1818;  died 
September,  1885. 

Richard  P.  Waters,  of  Beverly,  born  Sept.  29,  1808;  died  May 

19,  1887. 

Seth  Webb,  Jr.,  of  Boston,  born  Feb.  14,  1823;  died  Aug. 
31,  1862. 

John  G.  Webster,  of  Boston,  born  April  8,  1811 ;  died  Feb. 
7,  1886. 

Gershom  B.  Weston,  of  Duxbury,  born  in  1800;  died  in  1870. 


APPENDIX.  83 

John  W.  Wetherell,  of  Worcester,  born  July  16,  1820. 

Henry  B.  Wheelwright,  of  Taunton,  born  May  24,  1824. 

Nathaniel  H.  Whiting,  of  East  Marsh  field,  born  Nov.  24,  1808. 
An  effective  speaker. 

William  A.  White,  of  Watertown,  born  Sept.  2,  1818;  died  iu 
Madison,  Wis.,  Oct.  10,  1856.     An  earnest  writer  and  speaker. 

Benjamin  F.  White,  of  Weymouth,  died  April  16,  1885,  aged 
sixty-eight. 

John  G.  Whittier,  of  Amesbury,  born  Dec.  17,  1807.  Poet  and 
■writer  for  the  cause,  now  living  at  Danvers,  and  still  citizen  of 
Amesbury. 

Dudley  Williams,  of  West  Roxbury,  born  August,  1808;  died 
March  6,  1888. 

Franklin  Williams,  of  Roxbury,  born  March  2,  1822;  died  Oct. 
2,  1880. 

John  Winslow,  of  Newton,  born  Oct.  24,  1825.  A  speaker  for 
the  cause  in  1850-1852,  and  now  a  lawyer  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

William  H.  Wood,  of  Middleborough,  born  Oct.  24,  1811  ;  died 
March  30,  1883. 

Elizur  Wright,  of  Boston,  born  Feb.  12,  1804;  died  Nov.  21, 
1885.     An  early  speaker  and  constant  writer. 

Stephen  C.  Wrightington,  of  Fall  River,  born  Feb.  15,  1828. 

John  C.  Wyman,  of  Worcester,  born  in  Northboro',  Sept.  13,  1822. 

James  M.  W.  Yerrington,  of  Chelsea,  born  October,  1825.  An 
accurate  reporter  of  Antislavery  speeches. 


REUNION   OF   THE   FREE   SOILERS    OF 
FRANKLIN   COUNTY. 


The  following  abridged  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Franklin 
County  survivors  of  the  Free  Soil  party  of  1848,  which  took  place  at 
(Jreenfield,  Mass.,  Aug.  9,  1888,  being  the  fortieth  anniversary  of  the 
meeting  of  the  Buffalo  Convention,  is  taken  from  the  "  Greenfield 
Gazette  and  Courier." 

In  obetlience  to  the  call  whicli  had  been  issued,  the  Franklin  County  sur- 
vivors of  tlie  Free  Soil  party  of  1848  met  at  the  Mansion  House  on  Thurs- 
day, for  a  reunion  and  celebration.  Tliey  came  from  nearly  every  town  in 
the  county,  and  with  wives  and  daughters  made  a  company  of  nearly  fifty, 
wliicli  included  many  of  tbe  representative  men  of  this  vicinity.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  Secretary's  list  of  those  present,  recorded  by  towns  :  — 

Ashfield,  H.  S.  Ranney;  Bernardston,  Rev.  S.  Barber,  Joel  N.  Dewey;  Buck- 
land,  R.  W.  Field,  Frederick  Forbes,  George  D.  Crittenden,  Dr.  Josiah  Trow; 
Charlemont,  Warren  Albee,  J.  N.  Blodgett;  Conway,  L.  S.  Abell,  S.  Bradford; 
Deerfield,  James  Childs,  A.  W.  Bates;  Gill,  J.  B.  Marble,  A.  E.  Deane;  Greenfield, 
Hopkins  Woods,  M.  E.  Darling,  H.  A.  Potter,  Rev.  Dr.  John  F.Moors,  J.  Johnson, 
Sumner  Chapman,  T.  M.  Spicer;  Heath,  C.  P.  Coates;  Leverett,  Cephas  Porter; 
Montague,  Joseph  Clapp,  R.  N.  Oakraan,  Sr.,  Austin  Drake;  New  Salem,  Samuel 
H.  Stowell;  Northfleld,  A.  C.  Parsons,  Addison  Johnson,  Charles  Pomeroy;  Shel- 
burne,  Samuel  D.  Bardwell,  G.  W.  Mirick,  D.  A.  Fisk,  L.  T.  Covell;  Shutes- 
bury,  E.  G.  Wood;  Sunderland,  K.  Hubbard,  S.  D.  Crocker,  G.  W.  Graves, 
D.  D.  Whitmore. 

An  hour  or  two  was  spent  in  a  social  way,  and  in  renewing  old  acquain- 
tance. Dinner  was  served  at  one,  after  which  the  company  assembled  in 
the  parlors  to  listen  to  the  speeches  which  were  characterized  by  the  old- 
time  fire  and  enthusiasm.  R.  W.  Field,  of  Buckland,  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee of  arrangements,  called  the  meeting  to  order,  and  introducing  tlie 
president  of  the  day,  said:  — 

"  Forty  years  ago  to-day  a  noble  band  of  men  met  at  Buffalo,  and  declared 
although  both  of  the  two  great  political  parties  had  held  their  presidential 


APPENDIX.  85 

convention  and  solemnly  pledged  and  bound  themselves  that  slavery  was 
Constitutional  and  must  not  be  agitated, '  This  Buffalo  Convention  declares 
in  the  words  of  Patrick  Henry,  "Give  me  liberty,  or  give  me  death;" 
"  Thus  far  and  no  farther,  and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed." 
Come  weal  or  woe,  no  act  of  ours,  no  vote  of  ours  shall  uphold  this  accursed 
institution,  and  this  is  our  proclamation.  Not  one  foot  more  of  free  terri- 
tory shall  be  given  up  to  slavery.'  You  little  thought  then  at  Buffalo  on 
the  9th  day  of  August,  1848,  and  at  the  polls  the  coming  November,  that 
you  had  struck  a  blow  that  caused  the  chains  of  four  millions  of  human 
beings  to  fall  off,  and  that  they  were  to  become  free  and  equal  citizens  of 
this  great  republic.  The  germ  planted  at  Buffalo  took  root,  and  it  was 
the  beginning  of  the  political  party  that  placed  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the 
presidential  chair,  and  it  was  reserved  for  his  pen  to  sign  the  proclamation 
that  slavery  was  in  the  past,  no  more  to  curse  this  country  and  invite  the 
deserved  judgment  of  heaven  on  this  our  beloved  land.  But  a  handful  of 
us  are  spared  to  meet  here  to-day.  Since  this  reunion  was  proposed,  two 
members  have  passed  away,  one  of  whom,  Mr.  EUiot  of  Greenfield,  was  a 
member  of  the  committee  of  arrangements. 

"It  is  related  in  the  history  of  Hawley  that  bears  troubled  the  early  set- 
tlers of  that  town,  and  that  at  a  bear-hunt  the  brute  seized  a  lad,  and  would 
have  torn  him  to  pieces  had  not  one  sturdy,  cool-headed  man,  with  more 
presence  of  mind  than  his  comrades,  stepped  forward  and  planted  his  axe  in 
bruin's  head.  A  grandson  of  that  noble  old  man,  who  had  scarcely  passed 
his  majority,  cast  his  first  vote  for  freedom  forty  years  ago  ;  and  since  then, 
like  his  grandfather,  his  axe  has  been  uplifted  against  every  form  of  evil,  and 
he  has  held  a  position  in  society  which  we  all  might  envy,  and  is  the  pride 
of  his  neighborhood  and  town.  His  name  is  George  D.  Crittenden  of  Buck- 
land,  and  he  has  been  selected  to  preside  over  this  meeting  to-day." 

Mr.  Crittenden  in  assuming  the  chair  addressed  the  company  as  "  Ladies, 
gentlemen,  and  fellow-cranks."  He  then  spoke  of  tlie  formation  of  the  Free 
Soil  party  and  its  purpose  to  break  tlie  slave  power,  which  not  only  con- 
trolled the  two  great  parties,  but  the  Supreme  Court  as  well.  The  effort  at 
that  time  by  the  pro-slavery  leaders  was  to  make  their  institution  national 
instead  of  local ;  and  conscientious  men  decided  to  make  a  stand  against  its 
evil  influence  and  power.  He  introduced  as  the  first  speaker  Samuel  D. 
Bardwell,  Esq.,  of  Shelburne  Falls,  a  man  who  had  never  belonged  to  either 
of  the  great  parties.  Mr.  B.  said  it  was  not  unpleasant  to  go  on  exhibition 
as  a  curiosity.  He  was  happy  as  he  looked  back  across  the  lapse  of  half  a 
century  to  see  the  wonderful  progress  that  had  been  made.  Massachusetts, 
admitted  to  be  the  banner  State  for  liberty,  was  called  upon  fifty-two  years 
ago  to  indorse  an  order  from  five  or  six  legislatures  of  Southern  States  to 
enact  a  law  to  make  it  a  penal  offence  to  discuss  the  question  of  slavery. 
Governor  Everett,  in  addressing  the  Legislature,  said  the  Antislavery  So- 
ciety by  discussing  the  question  of  slavery  had  made  themselves  amenable 
to  the  common  law.  The  political  leaders  and  the  tlieological  world  were 
silenced.  Mr.  Bardwell  said  that  the  Antislavery  movement  started  in  the 
Lane  Seminary,  in  the  suburbs  of  Cincinnati,  in  1834.     Dr.  Beecher  was 


86  FREE    SOILERS    OF    FRANKLIX    COUNTY. 

president  of  the  school  and  Calvin  E.  Stowe  a  professor.  The  discussion 
among  tlie  students  of  the  question  of  slavery  was  attended  with  such  ex- 
citement that  tlie  seminary  was  broken  up.  Among  the  pupils  was  James 
G.  Birney,  who  came  from  a  slave  State  and  was  himself  a  slave-holder.  He 
was  so  impressed  with  the  discussion  that  he  emancipated  his  slaves,  and 
was  obliged  to  leave  his  State,  going  to  Ohio  and  then  to  New  York.  He 
became  the  standard-bearer  of  the  Free  Soilers  and  an  earnest  and  powerful 
worker  in  their  cause. 

The  president  stated  that  there  were  six  men  in  Charlemont  who  voted 
for  James  G.  Birney,  of  whom  one,  Warren  Albee,  was  introduced  as  a  man 
almost  eighty  years  old.  Mr.  A.  said  he  could  not  hear  what  was  said,  but 
he  wanted  to  see  tlie  brethren  once  more.  He  related  some  very  amusing 
incidents  of  his  Antislavery  days.  R.  N.  Oakman,  of  Montague,  followed  with 
reminiscences  which  went  back  to  Jackson,  and  reviewed  the  history  of  the 
Free  Soilers  until  they  were  merged  into  the  Republican  party  in  1856. 

A  poem  written  by  Dr.  C.  L.  Fisk,  Sr.,  was  read  by  Secretary  Johnson, 
the  doctor  being  unable  to  attend  the  reunion.  A  vote  of  thanks  was  passed 
for  the  poem  on  motion  of  A.  C.  Parsons,  of  Northfield.  The  next  speaker 
was  (Jeorge  W.  Mirick  of  Shelburne  Falls,  who  had  a  very  vivid  recollection 
of  the  Antislavery  days.  His  account  of  the  attempt  to  excommunicate 
Antislavery  men  from  the  church  in  West  Brookfield,  where  he  then  re- 
sided, was  exceedingly  interesting,  and  showed  the  bitter  feeling  that  then 
existed  against  those  who  had  the  courage  to  declare  their  convictions.  Dr. 
Josiah  Trow,  of  Buckland,  spoke  well  in  his  hearty,  earnest  way,  and  told 
how  glad  he  was  to  meet  the  men  with  whom  he  labored  for  the  right  forty 
years  ago.  If  there  are  any  people  on  earth  who  have  a  right  to  be  happy 
and  rejoice  it  is  the  Free  Soilers,  and  he  was  in  it  all  over. 

Rev.  J.  F.  Moors,  D.D.,  of  Greenfield,  was  then  introduced,  and  said  the 
first  lecture  he  ever  gave  was  in  Medfield,  with  the  cause  of  Antislavery  for 
his  subject.  The  first  petition  he  signed  after  being  ordained  at  Deerfield 
was  tliat  of  the  three  thousand  ministers  who  asked  Congress. for  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery.  He  voted  for  Martin  Van  Buren  in  1848,  with  his  Anti- 
slavery  friends,  though  it  came  across  the  grain. 

The  Secretary  announced  the  recent  deaths  of  two  of  the  original  band  of 
Free  Soilers,  William  Elliot,  of  Greenfield,  and  U.  T.  Darling,  Sr.,  of  Ley- 
den,  and  out  of  respect  to  them,  at  his  suggestion,  the  company  arose  and 
sang  "  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee  !  " 

Hon.  A.  C.  Parsons,  of  Northfield,  who  has  represented  his  district  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  and  the  county  in  the  Senate,  was  next  intro- 
duced ;  and  he  was  followed  by  H.  S.  Ranney  of  Ashfield,  Samuel  Stowell  of 
New  Salem  (he  was  sent  to  the  Legislature  as  a  Free  Soil  member),  Hoj^ 
kins  Woods  of  Greenfield,  James  Childs  of  Deerfield,  Cephas  Porter  of 
Leverett,  L.  S.  Abell  of  Conway  (whose  father  was  a  station  agent  of  the 
"  underground  railroad"),  E.  G.  Wood  of  Shutesbury,  Rev.  S.  Barber  of 
Bernardston,  and  Jonathan  Johnson  of  Greenfield;  but  want  of  space  will 
not  permit  us  to  report  more  fully  what  was  said.  A  little  discussion  came 
up  as  to  which  was  the  banner  Free  Soil  town  of  the  county.     H.  S.  Ranney 


APPENDIX.  87 

8l)ovved  tliat  Aslifield  carried  off  the  palm.  In  1848  slie  east  153  Free  Soil 
votes,  —  more  tlian  was  given  to  both  the  otlier  parties,  —  and  slie  sent  a  Free 
Soil  member  to  the  Legislature.  In  1850  slie  cast  147  Free  Soil  votes,  to 
122  for  Briggs  and  43  for  Boutwell,  and  again  elected  a  Free  Soil  Represen- 
tative, as  she  did  in  1851  (when  Mr.  Eanney  was  elected),  and  in  1853. 

The  meeting  throughout  was  of  the  most  interesting  character  and  greatly 
enjoyed.  It  was  finally  adjourned  to  meet  annually  hereafter,  with  the  same 
committee  of  arrangements  for  next  year,  Hopkins  Woods  of  Greenfield, 
and  L.  S.  Abell  of  Conway  being  added. 


THE    END. 


This  book  is  1)1' E  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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